Reason For Demise
by darklight1735
Summary: Gray was never the big "hero." What happens when he meets a mage who who can unleash his powers? Will he be able to protect his friends from Zeref's forces? Contains original characters to make the story work. Heats up around the first couple of chapters. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own Fairy Tail.**

The usual bright and cheery noise of laughter and friendly brawls echoed through the guildhall. Cana was sitting at the bar, Jet and Droy were watching Levy, Lisanna and Lucy were chatting, and Natsu was challenging Laxus to a duel. Meanwhile Gray stood in front of the request board looking for a job for his self. It had been a while since he'd gone off on one without anyone, and decided now would be a good time to go solo for a mission. The scarlet haired Titania was off on a mission for master and would not be back for a time, so the team wouldn't be going off together for any time soon. Gray picked a flyer off the board that looked suitable. It was a simple mission to slay a demon that has been terrorizing a village in Northern Fiore.

Gray turned around to head towards the bar to let Mirajane know he was leaving. Natsu crashed into the request board behind him a moment afterwards. Apparently losing the battle against Laxus. Gray chuckled under his breath at his friend's defeat. Natsu shot him one of his glares, "What are you smiling about, Droopy Eyes?"

"Who're you calling Droopy Eyes, Flame Brain?" With that Natsu sent his fist towards Gray's gut. Dodging the blow Gray responded by kneeing him in the stomach. With a "oof" Natsu doubled over, only for a second though before his fist flamed up and flew at Gray again. This small fight continued for a minute, neither boy gaining the upper hand.

"What's that?" Natsu asked first realizing the paper in Gray's hand. "Another job?"

"Not for you, just a quick, one person request."

Natsu flamed up at that. "What? You saying you can do something I can't?"

"Calm down pyro, just no need for two people."

A blue cat entered the scene then. "Natsu," the merry cat sang, "Gray's saying you're incapable." This got another outburst from the fire mage, which Gray merely ignored.

"I'll be going now." Gray said to Mirajane, holding the paper up.

Mirajane smiled at him. "Good luck, Gray." The ice mage mumbled thanks under his breath to the joyful waitress and exited the guild. Leaving behind him an annoyed Natsu that was arguing about his abilities with Happy.

Gray made his way to Magnolia's train station and boarded. It was strange to him, this being one of the few times lately without having to drag Natsu on board a vehicle. It was also eerily quiet not having Erza and Lucy chatting next to him. It had been so long having solitary time before a mission it almost seemed unnatural. It was also pleasant, being an ice mage he preferred quiet sometimes. He'd thought about traveling up north for the quietude of the snow to train. It had started to bother him that Natsu was always the one that saved the day. He was just as able as the flame head, yet he wasn't the one that was the hero. Or that Erza was always the one who was thought strong.

Gray gritted his teeth. No, it didn't bother him that his friends were strong, it bothered him that he was the one who wasn't. He just needed to get away for a moment. Recently his mind has been clouded and he couldn't think clearly.

A few hours later the train screeched to a stop. Unfortunately, the village wasn't anywhere near the station but another few hours walk away. Sighing Gray began the next part of his travel. First he made his way past a dry, desert type area, followed by a sudden change to a green forest. Eventually the woods opened up to a small clearing where an even smaller village stood. Making his way to the village center he went towards a building that looked like the mayor resided. Gray knocked on the door and waited for the man to open the entrance. The young mage realized eyes watching him behind closed curtains from nearby homes and shops. Before he looked straight at any of the spectators the door opened revealing a short, stout man. "Are you the mage that accepted the job?" the old man asked.

"Yea, you the guy who sent it out?" The old man nodded and motioned him inside. Closing the door behind the ice magus, he let out a sigh. "You're local residents seem a little paranoid." Gray commented.

"Yes, well… it's expected of what's been happening." The aged man replied. "Some foul demon has been attacking the village for the past month. They're all too scared to leave their homes. Please get rid of the thing as soon as possible."

Gray nodded in understanding. "Can you tell me anything about it?"

The man nodded once again. "It seems to live west of the village. At least that's the direction it comes and goes from. I suggest you look there for it. It seems to have high tolerance against magic, so good luck."

Gray nodded. "Thank you," he said. "I don't believe this will take long." With that Gray exited the building and made his way towards the west side of the village, anxious eyes following him.

It wasn't hard to track the beast. A trail of fallen trees snaked its way through the forest. The deeper he went through the woods the more it became trampled brush under his feet. Part of which was covered in droll and something that seemed acid like mixed with it. A low growl sounded in front of him. The demon was crouched on all fours, claws digging into the ground. It seemed scaly, with lines of green scale traveling across the black ones. Taking a battle stance Gray began a stare down with the beast, waiting for the first move. Snarling the creature leapt towards his throat.

"Ice Make: Lance!" he shouted. Immediately long, pointed lances rushed at the demon. The beast didn't even try to avoid the attack. Instead it continued, the lances only leaving scratches along the scales. The mage jumped to the side, avoiding a swipe from the creature. "Ice Make: Hammer!" A large frozen hammer crashed down on the spine of the demon. This barely even stunned the beast, the mayor was right, magic had little affect against it. In that case, Gray thought to himself, more brute force. "Ice Blade: Seven Slice Dance!" Gray exerted the sharp edges of the blades into the sides of the beast.

Howling in pain the demon reeled back, green blood oozing from its fresh wound. A hind leg kicked at him, knocking Gray against one of the few still standing trees. Standing back up Gray poised himself for his next move. "Ice Make: Saucer!" Now there was a spell he hadn't used in a while. The ice sliced across the body, a finishing blow. The demon let out a last hiss and laid still.

Sighing, Gray headed back towards the village. He was almost disappointed. He was hoping for more of a challenge. Back at the village Gray met once again with the mayor. The aged man almost began crying at the good news. Smiling Gray accepted the small reward and left.

He was maybe an hour away from the village heading back towards the train station, when a loud crash was echoed through the forest. A wolf, reptilian like monster flew in front of him, more likely it was thrown there. It wasn't threatening him though. Instead the creature was crouched, ready to attack something else, off to the side. Or rather, someone else.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi guys. Still don't own Fairy Tail, enjoy.**

Without turning around to snarl at Gray the monster leapt back to the direction it came, snapping it jaws at whoever was the assailant. Gray could barely make out a figure across from the monster. Along with several more forms of more monsters attacking said person. Reflexively, he sent an iced lance at the first wolf creature. Howling in anguish the beast was sent flying back. The other wolfs, realizing the new threat, turned and pounced on him. Dodging to the side he evaded the sharp teeth. "Ice Make: Death Scythe!" Three of the wolfs were sent backwards into some trees whimpering a few retreated from the battle.

The ice mage grinned to himself. This was so much better than the demon, they put up more of a fight. "Ice Make: Ice Bringer!" Two large ice swords instantaneously appeared in his hands. He swept the swords in a deadly arc, annihilating his new opponents.

Before he could move onto his next a foe a weight crashed onto his back, sending him sprawling towards the ground. The wolf that crashed into him… no… not a wolf. It wasn't heavy enough to be and wasn't aiming to hurt him. A split second later after the fall another wolf had jumped at where Gray was, teeth snapping. If He hadn't been pushed down Gray would have been mincemeat for the thing.

The thing rolled off Gray's back onto the ground beside him. Before Gray could look at his savior the wolf sprang back towards him. Once again Gray was saved by the mystery person next to him. A force of black and gold that radiated pure power hit the poor beast, raising a cloud of dust. When the dirt settled the spot where the wolf creature had previously been standing was empty, except for a small crater in the earth.

_What the hell?_

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to get in a fight were someone has to save your pathetic backside." It was more of a statement than a question coming from the being next to him.

That irked him. "Hasn't anyone told you to thank people who help you out." The vexed ice mage snapped back. He turned around to look at the crude rescuer. Gray was somewhat surprised to see someone about his age sitting there. That blast was easily as powerful as one of Laxus's lightning bolts, but the mage wasn't near as old as the blond Levin mage. The next thing the you mage noticed was that the other had, well… curves. Call him sexist for assuming it was a guy before looking at her, but most of the powerful mages he knew were guys. Minus, of course, Erza, who would kill him if he said that out loud. She had long black hair that traveled down her back. She wore black clothes that showed great contrast to her pale skin. A short sword was strapped to her hip, the sharp blade matched her deadly smile she wore. At the small time her eyes gave him a death glare.

"You always this much fun to tease, Ice Boy?" _This girl show knows how to get under my skin, _he thought to himself. _She's almost as annoying as Natsu ._Gray sat up. Something about this girl told him she was unsafe, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Well you sure are polite to new people. You got a name?" The ice alchemist asked.

"That depends, do you?"

Gray stared at the girl for a moment. He will never understand while people answered questions with more questions. "It's Gray," he mumbled.

"Gray, huh? You're name as depressing as you?" Her voice was almost taunting.

Gray took a deep breath. "So I guess you don't know what manners are."

"It's Masaru."

Gray looked at her oddly. "Isn't that a boy's name?"

"Yeah, well, isn't gray a color."

"Touchѐ." Gray stood up and reached his hand out to help her up. "What was that beam you shot?"

"I could tell you, but what would be the fun in that." She said while taking his hand. "What about you, you always attack monsters you see on the side of the road?"

Gray grinned. "Nah. Just when it looks like fun." Masaru grinned at his sarcastic tone.

"Say ice boy, you don't happen to know how to get to a train station from here do you?"

"Sure," he replied "heading there now." Gray motioned for her to follow him as he continued walking. "Guess you're not from here then." He commented.

"Nope, and judging from you're guild insignia neither are you. There aren't any guilds near here."(Gray wasn't wearing a shirt at the moment.)

"So," Gray said. "What brings you here?"

"Hmm" she answered. "Not much, just training mostly, traveling here and there. Say, where is your guild at?"

"Magnolia."

For some reason she smiled at that. "Magnolia, huh? Sounds like an interesting place. Are all the people there strippers too?"

Gray looked down at his bare chest. _Good first impression, _he thought, _just strip in front of a complete stranger, there's nothing wrong with that._ "Nah, I'm just a special snowflake."

"Very special." Masaru said under her breath. "You wouldn't know if there was a place in Magnolia where I could do research, do you?"

Gray thought about that. "I suppose so. Depends on what you're looking for."

"Oh, nothing much. Just some brief magic history."

"Sure then, plenty of places to look for that. If worst comes to shove I'm sure my guild master would be fine with you looking in the guild archives. Anything extremely specific?"

"Thanks, but I'm not sure a country so far south like Fiore will have anything on what I'm looking for."

"And you're looking for…"

Masaru, who had been walking a few steps in front of him, turned around. "Historical information on the X774 Deliora attacks."


	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own Fairy Tail. But don't we all wish we did.**

Gray froze. He felt his heart stop pounding. Not a single breath escaped his lips. Just the very name of Deliora hit a nerve. Even now, so many years later, the thought of Deliora struck a blow in his heart. _But he's gone, right? Ur took care of him. He's gone, it's all in the past._ Gray eyed the stranger with an apprehensive glare. _So why… why would someone want to know about him!?_

After a few moments of silence Masaru interrupted his thoughts. "What's wrong ice boy? You blanked out."

His glare turned as cold as his ice. "Why," he spat. "Why would you want to look up anything to do with that vicious monstrosity?"

A stare down seemed to form between the two mages. Neither being the one willing to step down. Every second that passed by Gray's eyes turned colder and more severely grave. _If this girl thinks she can say that name and nothing else she has another thing coming._ Masaru, apparently read his mind at that moment. "Calm down, Gray. It's not like I'm one those insane people who try to resurrect the beast."

Gray flinched at that. Even if it was exactly resurrection Lyon trying to revive Deliora still got to him at times. _Cool it,_ he thought in his mind. _It wouldn't matter anyway, you can't bring Deliora back. Ur made sure of that._ "You didn't answer the question." Gray felt slight gladness at hearing his voice wasn't as shaky as he felt.

Their small star down continued. That annoying smirk came back to her face. "You always this moody." Turning around she continued walking forward. "You can take one big breath if you want," she called back at him, "I'm only looking on stories about any survivors. The actual monster demon means next to nothing."

Gray stared at her back as she walked away. "Survivors?" he called back, starting to follow her steps.

"Aye, I heard of a few down in some guild called Lamia Scale or something like that. But none of the survivors fit the description I'm looking for. Why does the name tick you off?"

"Description?" Masaru turned back around, their stare off resuming for the moment. _Got it,_ _I don't get another answer till she does._ Gray exhaled a long breath, "Deliora killed my family."

This seemed to get her full attention. "Interesting," her voice held no emotion in it, she turned back around, continuing forward. "Tell me, he didn't happen to use his infamous magic 'beam' that destroys everything in its path, did he?" Honest curiosity was present in her voice.

"Yeah," the ice mage responded, "that was his magic after all."

"Yes, I know. But he didn't use it on every village, town, and city he demolished." Her voice had gotten quieter and smaller, almost like she was thinking to herself. "Say, Gray, how old are you?"

"You didn't answer my question." Gray said with slight irritation in his voice. Masaru, either not noticing or more likely, not caring ignored it. He ground his teeth in frustration. "Eighteen." He said in defeat.

That stopped her in her tracks. "There is no way in hell." Her voice was barely audible.

Before he knew what was happening Gray was thrown back at a tree trunk. A knee was brought up hard against his chest, causing his breath to leave his lungs._ What the heck!? She wasn't even near me, how'd she pin me down so fast without me knowing. _Before he could ponder this notion any further his head was yanked back by his raven hair and his eyes gazed in those of Masaru's. Her mood seemed to have completely altered, her casually smirk turned into a line anger and fury radiated from her lifeless eyes. "What are you playing at, Gray?" her tone held no friendliness in it, the words seemed to drip in hatred.

"What do you mean?" His eyes matched hers, not daring to blink.

Her grip on his hair tightened. "Don't mess with me. You expect me to believe your family was in that attack. That was eighteen years ago. There's no way you could have survived at that young of an age, at most you would have been a few months old."

_Why does any of that matter?_ The concept was bitter in his mind. "I haven't aged in the past seven years." The reply wasn't enough to please her, but it certainly got her to let go of him. _Why is it I always get stuck with the insane ones? _Her glare still reached him, obviously waiting for a better explanation. Another sigh from the ice wizard, "You've heard of Acnologia, right?" A nod in response. "Well, let's just say most of the guild I'm in was attacked by it and had to have our backs saved. But as a result we were, in a sense, trapped in time for seven years."

"So it's true then, about that one guild." They stared at each other for a few more seconds, then Masaru did something Gray didn't expect. She threw her head and started laughing. _Great, I really do get all the crazies._ Her black hair fell down her back in waves, the sword of hers glimmered in the sunlight menacingly. Somehow the laughter completed the scene. It painted the picture of some deranged girl who was a hazard to be around. "This is just too bloody perfect." That comment seemed to be to no one in particular. "Tell me something else ice boy. You as weak as you seem, because we are so screwed if you are?"

"_We? _What do you mean _we_?"

Masaru stopped her laughter for a moment. "Interesting…"

"Stop saying that!" Gray grabbed her arm before she turned back away from him. "Now look here, you haven't answered one of my questions. So either you give me some answers or I swear I'll drag you to the first mental hospital I see."

That glare returned. It didn't matter, he was not going to back down from some dirty look. Besides if he could do this with Natsu there's no way this would be any differe… _What the hell?_

His hand that he'd grabbed her with started to burn. A searing pain started and traveled up his arm that felt like being stabbed like glass. It felt internal, like a wound he couldn't close. Gray jerked his hand away, his arm was becoming numb and had begun spreading to his chest. He gripped his arm, _what is this?_ _What did she do?_ This whole time she had continued to glare at him, "You like playing with fire, don't you ice boy."

The same gold black light that Gray saw earlier appeared again. This time it seemed to engulf Masaru's figure. Gray didn't even have time to react before the light shot out at him. Somewhere in the short time between them meeting and now he'd quickly forgotten how powerful she seemed. His body flew back into another tree. His body slide down the rough bark and to the ground. Gray's vision became black than slowly fuzzy, only to lose it again when thrown again. "What? Not going to fight back Ice Mage? Just giving up that easily?" Gray slowly stood up, trying his best not to let his knees give out from under him. Painfully Gray put his fist on to his open palm. Before he could even begin the spell he was about to perform he felt his magic power leave his body, no be forced from his body. His knees buckled beneath him and the ground came rushing up. In a few strides Masaru reached him and jerked his head up. "Listen," she whispered into his ear, "I can either be your worst enemy or your key to survival. Now, which do you choose?"

His eyes reached back to hers. Somehow the look in her eyes told him it wasn't an open debate. Gray dropped his gaze. "That's what I thought." Gray stared at the ground, he noticed Masaru's feet shift position as she stood up. Gray moved his eyes up slightly to look back at her. Her face gave away nothing. There was no emotion, no recognition of what just happened, just blank. Then, surprisingly, she reached her hand out to him. The invite seemed too out of character for what just happened. Cautiously, Gray accepted the invitation, he probably couldn't get up without it. When his hand touched her a wave of strength flowed into him. All his magic power that had left him seemed to rush back into his body all at once. The sudden shift in power caused his feet to waver as a cloud of dizziness struck him.

Masaru held onto him tighter, almost holding him up. "Geez Gray, what have you been doing for the past few years?"

"What do you mean?" he mumbled, blinking a few times to find his balance.

"Do you really not know?"

"No." Again the two mages gazed at each other, a look of almost disbelief on Masaru's face. "I swear if you say 'interesting' to that I will find all my remaining strength to slap that word out of your vocabulary."

An actual smile crossed her face this time, but only for a brief second. "You really want to know?" Somehow this wasn't in a mocking tone, it was more of a sad question.

Hesitantly Gray nodded. A sigh came from Masaru this time. A faint glow seemed to surround Gray's body. For a second he wondered if this was another spell of hers that would work against him. But no pain ever came. The glow faded away slowly then completely disappeared. Gray stood there dumbfounded for a moment. He looked back at the other mage. "What did you do?"

A sorrowful look was on her face. "You never knew you had a concealment spell on you, did you?"

"What?"

"Try looking at your back."

Gray made a small wall of ice next to him. Gray stood with his back to it and turned his head to look at the reflection in the ice. A magic circle was on his lower back. It glowed black and ominously way on his skin. "What is it?"

"It's a variation of death magic." Gray shot her a panicked look. "It doesn't kill immediately, it kills slowly over the course of a variation of years."

"Okay, but why the hell is it on _me_? What about my guild mates that were there when Acnologia attacked?"

"Don't worry about your guild was a power that Zeref only gave a few of his demons. When certain spells don't kill someone those were meant to. It was supposed to make people think they were safe from Zeref afterwards when they weren't. Deliora's magic beam was one of said spells. But the spell has certain side effects."

"What side effects?"

She looked him in the eyes now. "Don't worry, those don't really work against you. There more like side effects against Zeref."

"Which are?"

"A way to unlock enough power to weaken Zeref by slaying Acnologia."


	4. Chapter 4

**I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

Gray's complete attention was on the other mage. _Was she serious? She really thinks Acnologia can be defeated that simple? _"You really are mad." His tone was matter of fact. That was the only explanation.

Her eyes narrowed into slits, "How do you mean?"

"Do you really think Acnologia can be beaten that easily? Besides, that's a job for a dragon slayer."

"And did a dragon slayer vanquish him?" She had a point. Neither Wendy, Gajeel, or Natsu could make a scratch on the dragon. Gray was silent at this. "That's what I thought. That was beside the point anyway. Did I say a single person could do it?"

Gray glanced back at her eyes. "Are you proposing a team?"

"I'm not proposing anything. I'm just thinking back on legend."

"What legend?"

"How much history do you know?" She was answered with an empty star. "Right, guess not much. You know Zeref wasn't the only dark force to ever threaten people." A nod in response. "Well, each time there was someone or a group of someones that had to deal with it. Mages, council, whatever." Gray nodded again, signaling her to go on. "Thing is though, that's the figure head that they fight. You can't just defeat the head though. That's like killing a snake but leaving a nest full of eggs." The ice alchemist saw where she was going with this. "So basically, this time around Zeref's the problem, he's who everyone's scared of. But what about his demons, who takes care of them?" That made sense, no one ever went out looking for a demon, but they were there. "Zeref's repeating history now. Plenty of demons and foul creatures have been created with the form of magic he uses, and even though other magic forms can defeat it, it's not pretty." Gray flinched at that, Ur's fight with Deliora certainly wasn't a pleasant memory. "The magic used to form Deliora and Acnologia was closer to pure magic."

"Pure magic?"

"It's sort of what some people would call a theory. You've heard of the "One Magic," right?" Another nod. "Well, the idea is that every magic comes from the same ancestor. Therefore can be closely related. But over time it has evolved and the magic cannot be easily connected again. "Pure Magic" is when the user can connect his or her magic to its ancestor, meaning it can take on characteristics of other magic while keeping its own form. Is this making sense to you?"

"No."

Masaru put a hand over her eyes and thought of a better explanation. "Okay, how about this. You know how ice works, right?"

"Well I'm an ice mage so…"

"No, regular, plain ice." Just a stare. "Okay, the common misconception is that ice makes things cold. But in reality heat moves to cold, which melts the ice as it takes on the heat." A nod this time. "But if you used heat on your magic it wouldn't work. So what pure magic does is balance that out. Meaning your ice can take on as much heat as you want and will never melt. In other words, burning ice."

"That kind of makes sense. But what does that have to deal with the side effects."

"I'm getting to that. In short, as magic came more and more developed the connection to the original faded and can no longer be reached by any ordinary mage, the connection is blocked by their own magic. But since Zeref's monsters used that before it was forgotten they still possess the ability to use it. So when one of the demons uses that specific death magic they're using what is one of the closest forms of pure magic. The side effect is everyone who is hit by the spell is "unblocked" and can reach the pure magic."

Gray pondered this for a moment. "So in short a few mages can come in contact with the pure magic."

"Yep."

"And once they do they can sort of manipulate their magic to become exceedingly powerful."

"You got it."

"But then they die from the death spell."

"Exactly!"

The sarcasm in his voice was lost on her. "So, are you going to reach the pure magic? Or are you going to give up?"

"Isn't that obvious." Somewhere along the way the choice became clear. If he could find the power to defend his friends against monsters like Acnologia of course he was going to take it. Even if he wasn't so sure weather this girl was completely trustworthy.

Masaru broke out in a grin. "Knew you would say that. So, are you ready?"

"We're starting now?"

"You mean you're starting now, and yes. It's not like there's unlimited time."

Gray looked at her doubtfully. "Fine, but I should probably talk to my guild first. I don't need them worrying if I don't come back soon."

Masaru waved the thought aside. "Don't worry about that too much."

Again, another doubtful look. "First things first. Answer my questions."

"I have been."

"Now you're answering all of them. First one, so you're one of the mages that can come close to this 'Pure Magic.'" This time a nod from her. "Second, is there anyone else?"

"Three that I know of."

"Do they know?"

"Yeah, I've talked to two of them. The third knows too, but he doesn't really care."

"Next question, what type of magic did you use?"

"The light one was mostly just magic power."

"And when my magic power disappeared and returned?"

"Those were called 'open spells.' Meaning they're open to anyone's use no matter what their original ability. Some people know how to use a few open spells that have not reached pure magic. But they can easily be broken or absorbed, making it useless."

"Okay, that makes sense." Gray took in a deep breath. "If I have any more you'll answer them, right?"

"Sure. You ready?"

"Yay! First off, we have to do a few things." Masaru waved her hand and Gray was once again engulfed with the soft glow that surrounded him earlier. "There, just because it's there doesn't mean you want to look at it." Gray understood what she meant by that as the glow of the magic circle on his back disappeared.

"What's next."

Masaru looked at him for a few moments thinking. Finally her gaze her on something lying on his chest. "How often do you wear that necklace?"

"Almost all the time. Why?"

"Good, make that all the time. Give it here." Gray did as he was told and hand the piece of jewelry to her. "This part is important. When a mage connects with the pure magic it throws them off their balance. Meaning they go off the deep end. Fortunately I spell can be put on something that can then be worn to temporarily balance the mage."

"Temporarily?"

"Either till the spell needs to be renewed or the mage regains perfect balance." The necklace laid in her open palm. Masaru muttered a few words that Gray wasn't able to make sense of. A few seconds later a dark purple magic circle appeared over the necklace. "Now give me your hand."

Gray held out his hand to the other mage. Taking it in her empty hand Masaru shifted the necklace on the other till she was able to unstrap the sword at her waist. "What are you-"

"Stop squirming." The command was enough to keep him from retracting his hand, but somehow he wasn't sure about this. Before he could consider the thought any further Masaru sliced her sword across his palm, leaving a trail of crimson in its wake. She moved his cut hand over the necklace and squeezed a few drops of blood on to the jewelry. A sizzling sound came from the necklace when the blood made contact. "That will do it. Don't worry about your hand pretty boy. It won't scar." Gray ignored the small insult as he was handed back his necklace. "Of course it wouldn't matter if it did." Masaru commented having noticed the scar on his forehead and the two on his lower abdomen. Gray put the newly enchanted piece of jewelry back around his neck. It didn't seem different, but a powerful aura came from it.

"So this training, what exactly will we be doing."

"Like I said, you start now. I'll teach you some open spells afterwards. First you're leaving."

That caught him off guard. "Where exactly am I going?"

"Do you know what the Celestial Spirit World is?" Gray nodded, thinking about the blonde celestial spirit mage back at Fairy Tail.

"I've been there once."

That got a grin from her. "Good, because you're going back."

"I thought humans couldn't survive there for long."

"That all depends. There are different dimensions between our world and theirs. For example, when you went did it seem like very little time had gone by but when you got back it had been weeks." A nod. "It's not like that in every dimension. Some, like the one you're going to are the opposite. It's slightly different though because it's not completely the celestial world. There are no spirits and humans can breathe there."

"And because of the time difference it becomes a perfect training grounds."

"Exactly, but since the sense of celestial and human is thrown of the dimension becomes close to the pure magic. Not exactly the Celestial Spirit World, not exactly the human world."

"How big is the time difference?"

"That's thee iffy part for you. Probably about a month there is equal to a week here. I'll get you at the end of the week."

"So I really am on my own."

"For now."

"And your reason to miss this fun training experience?"

"Are you crazy, you may have to spend a week in a winter wonderland, but I don't. Now you ready?"

"It's now or never, right?"

"That's the spirit!" Masaru spread her legs out until they were at shoulders width apart. "This is another open spell I'll teach you later. But for now just work on your Maker Magic." She held her arms out in front of her. A soft gleam of gold appeared around her. The space in front of her seemed to rip apart, leaving a hole in the air. On the other side a grey light shone and a strong wind blew from it. Gray edged closer to the portal. "Sure you're ready?"

"No."

"Oh well," Masaru's hand forcefully pushed against Gray's back. Before he knew what was happening Gray found him tumbling through the grey abyss.


	5. Chapter 5

**I do not own Fairy Tail.**

Gray felt like he was plummeting for a lifetime. When he finally stopped falling his body hit something hard and soft at the same time. Pushing himself up Gray help this left side which he landed on. He winced at the pain. The drop had not been kind to his muscles; already he could tell the whole side will be black in bruises later on. The next thing he realized was that it was _cold._

Gray always knew his ice was cold, and he was always area of any outside temperature. But he himself had never felt cold since before Ur took him in. Never since then had it felt inconvenient. But this was uncomfortable. Subconsciously he put his arms around himself, shivering all the while. _I'm cold?_ _Why am I cold? Ice mages don't feel frigid. _The frosty wind slashed at him in all directions. Snowflakes carried along at every slash that felt like Gray had thousands of tiny daggers being thrown at him. Gray slowly pushed himself up from the ground, using all his strength not to fallback from the strong wind. Slowly he managed to put his arms out in front of him. "I-Ice M-make: _S –sh-shield_." He couldn't keep his teeth from chattering as he said the spell. A magic circle appeared in front of him and… and nothing happened.

The magic circle floated in the air for a few more seconds, fading from solid to clear. Then it just crumbled. _What just happened?_ Never in all his years as a mage had he seen a magic circle _crumble. _Even more important, _did my spell just fail?_ What was this? Does magic not work here? Gray took the stance again, "Ice Make: Shield!" Maybe if he put more force into it the shield will form. A magic circle appeared again, shattering almost immediately.

_ So my magic means nothing here._ Gray's face was grim. His current predicament was not by any means pleasant. Gray set his face firm. Slowly he moved his hands to the rest of his clothes. Even when freezing he still managed to strip in no time at all. Determination was written clearly on his face. If time was short he didn't have time to waste. Somehow the challenge of just using magic added to his purpose of being here. Not being able to use the magic he had his whole life was probably the most vexing thing in his life. _Well, a close second,_ he thought, thinking of the rosy haired fire mage back at Fairy Tail. That made him grin, he was definitely going to fight him when he got back.

"Ice Make: SHIELD!"

A cry could be heard from miles around, ringing off the distant mountains back to the frozen forest across from the rising landmass.

Somewhere in a blank land stood alone ice mage yelling the phrase "ice make" repeatedly at nothing. He'd stood in the same spot for hours. His body had become marked from countless grazes of icicles hitting his bare flesh over and over again. Refusing to cease for the day till he managed to withhold a spell, even if only for a short time. He continued to retake his stance, yelling out through the screaming wind long after his voice became hoarse.

Once he had been able to slightly carry out a spell. A small shield had appeared in front of him only to disappear like a mirage afterwards. Again he took his stance. His shout signaling his creation magic rang out in the air. Simultaneously a mass of ice appeared before the young man. A bluish white glow came from the object. The ice mage smiled to himself, but only for a second till the mass shattered into pieces and smashed into his body. Sending him flying into the snow behind him. He only briefly saw the shield collapse before his head hit the icy ground and everything went black.

Gray cracked his eyes open slowly, and painfully. He vaguely remembered being knocked back, but the details were too fuzzy. He held his head in his hand. He couldn't tell how long he'd been out of it. Time was near impossible to tell here. The sky always seemed white mixed with some degree of grey. Gray moaned in pain, his body was covered in bruises and cuts from earlier. Hunger pains were felt in his stomach and cold nipped at his skin. Stumbling to his feet Gray began walking forward. The wind had died down and snow and ice no longer blew in all directions.

Sometime earlier he had realized not all the ground below him was solid. Part of seemed to be a lake frozen several feet through by the harsh climate. And where there was water, there was fish. Gray made his way further out to the middle of the lake where the ice wouldn't be so thick. Kneeling down near the surface he examined the frozen water. The ice looked about three feet deep here, probably the shallowest in the lake.

Taking in a deep breath he laid his palm on the ground. He used to be able to make ice break before he arrived here. Focusing all his energy he tried to manage to do it now. A small, blue magic circle appeared beneath his hand. An almost inaudible cracking sound arose under him. A tiny chip of ice came up but that was all.

He ground his teeth in frustration. Gray reeled his arm back as far as he could. He brought his fist down with all the strength he could muster. He could feel his skin tear as it came in contact with the hard surface. He didn't feel the pain, all he felt was frustration. He was mad. Mad that he couldn't use his magic. Mad at the fact ice acted as his enemy now. Mad that everything was _so damn cold!_

Then everything just broke.

A large cracking resounded across the frozen lake. The ice beneath him gave way and once more Gray found himself descending downwards. Gelid water surrounded his body. He tried to kick his way back to the surface. He couldn't move though, he was too cold. Everything was too cold.

Defeat overwhelmed him. There was no way he would come this far only to end up like this. This wasn't going to be pointless. Gray found himself screaming in frustration. Icy water went down his throat as soon as he opened his mouth. There was no way he would give up this easily. _Danmit! He was one of Ur's pupils and some cold water was going to stop him? He was a Fairy Tail mage and was going down without a fight?_

Sometime between these thoughts an azure magic circle surrounded him. It spread farther than the lake and touched the distant mountains. It turned blindingly blue to white. All at once it snapped back to its source in flash and erupted into glaciers, leaving behind an ice mage in a now drained lake gripping his head in frustration. While all around him raised shards of ice at all directions that still glowed blue in the grey light. The ice mage slowly raised his head and looked at what now stood around him. _Did he do that?_ That was the last thing he thought before the loss of magic power reached him and he again lost consciousness.

* * *

Natsu sat at Fairy Tail's bar, drumming his fingers against the countertop. "Shouldn't that Ice Head be back by now?"

"I'm sure he's just running late." The blonde Celestial mage replied back. "He probably missed his train or something."

Somehow the very mention of the train made Natsu sick. "That's just like him. Being that irresponsible."

Lucy smiled at her friend's words. "Sounds like somebody misses him."

The fire mage was taken aback by that. "I'm glad that Ice Block isn't here!" Natsu sat fuming for a short time after that. Lucy knew he just said that from the friendly rivalry between the two mages. "I know!" the fire mage brightened. "Let's go on a solo mission, we don't need him!" The dragon slayer hit his fist in his palm to show his determination.

Lucy let out an exasperated sigh. "Natsu, I'm not sure you know the meaning of solo."

"Aye." Happy agreed next to her.

* * *

It had been a week since Gray had woken up in the crater he created. Since then magic came much more easily to him. He wasn't able to release that much magic power again, nor was he always able to maintain a spell. A first the ice melted soon after creation, leaving only a puddle behind. But he'd notice the change in his magic. It be impossible not to. His ice appeared much faster and easily. A bluish glow radiated form the ice he created. It felt different too. Powerful magic seemed to come from the form and gave the impression of great magic. He could feel his magic merging with its surroundings and coming closer to the feel Masaru's magic gave off.

Along with learning pure magic he had also seemed to learn dynamic Ice Make in the process. It was different than Lyon's magic though. His creations were more freely moving, unlike Lyon's were he had to move his hands into the position to control the animal, Gray seemed linked to his ice mentally, moving it just by thought. It was more lifelike too, his creations moved gracefully at the same time being firm. He'd also learned to control other ice than his own. Much like how Ultear did when they fought each other. The exception being she could only make his disappear. Gray was able to make ice around him move on its own, changing the landscape he was in drastically.

Gray grinned to himself. His magic had improved what would have taken him most of his life in only a few days. He wasn't done yet, Gray's smile widened at the thought that this was only the beginning. He had started to experiment with what his magic could do outside its usual domain. He began with trying with the 'burning ice' spell Masaru said had mentioned. At first it only backfired on itself, melting the ice with its own heat. The more Gray practiced the spell the less it melted and became hot to the point of scalding.

Once he mastered 'burning ice' he moved on to another experiment. Gray had done quite a bit of walking in the grey world where he currently dwelled. A pine tree that stood in a forest a distance a ways from the place he landed at originally, served as his perfect test subject. The more he was able to control ice, the more he thought about what had the potential to become ice. As long as plants had water in them he should be able to freeze it.

Gray laid his hand on the trunk of the tree. Breathing in he focused his magic energy on what he was about to do. A magic circle appeared underneath his hand and shone a marvelous, azure color. Brightness surrounded the tree in a flash of white. Gray studied the sight before him. Apparently he had misjudged how much magic this would take by a rather large amount. Instead of freezing the water inside the tree he froze the whole tree but destroyed the pine in the process. Instead of just a frozen layer covering the tree the tree seemed to have completely turned to ice. Instead of rough bark a translucent surface shined. Gray saw right through the tree to the forest behind it. The once snow covered pine needles now where almost impossibly thin icicles that clinked together. He thought about the now frozen tree before him. He had changed it into almost pure, ice magic; he hadn't frozen it at all. _Maybe if I used a different spell._ Gray turned around to the tree behind him. This time he focused on only freezing water inside, and only water. At first nothing seemed to have change. Slowly Gray raised his arm up. Branches moved upwards, pointing towards the sky. The young ice mage slammed his arm down and the branches moved with it.

A grin spread across Gray's face. It faltered a bit at his next thought. Better not use this on people, making others go against their will was beneath him. His smile came back on the next thought. As for the first try, that was rather amazing. He would just have to be careful not to turn anything into ice magic itself and he would be fine.

* * *

A fire mage sat with his head in his arms bored to his fullest capacity. Though he would never admit to missing his friend he would admit missing not having anyone to fight against. _Shouldn't he be back by now? _Fairy Tail's resident ice mage had been gone nearly a week. The job he last went on hadn't seemed too difficult, had something, somehow gone wrong?

Natsu shook that thought out of his head. That icy idiot could take care of himself. After all, he was a Fairy Tail mage. The fiery mage perked up immediately at the thought. "Gajeel!" he yelled. "Fight me!" He was in a much better mood now and wanted to have some fun. Gajeel just ignored the mage.

"Laxus! Fight me!" Again, Natsu's request was ignored.

"You seem rather cheerful today." The blonde mage said besides him.

"Agreed." The scarlet haired Titania said, walking through the doors of the guild hall.

"Erza, you're back." Lucy smiled at her friend. "How was the mission?"

Erza smiled back at the Celestial mage. "It was certainly interesting." Before Lucy could comment on what she meant by that she was interrupted.

"Erza, fight me!"

The requip mage smiled slightly at her friend. "Some other time, Natsu." Erza glanced around for a bit, realizing a missing presence. "Where's Gray?"

Natsu stopped smiling at that. "Ice Block decided to go solo for a mission."

"I see," Titania replied. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must go see master." Erza wound her way between the tables in the guild. Master Makarov sat on the bar chatting with a few Fairy Tail members. "Excuse me, Master, but may I have a words with you." Makarov sensed the tone in the mage. Nodding, he stood up and motioned her towards one of the back rooms where they wouldn't be disturbed.

"What is it, Erza?"

"The demon you told me to take care of, it's disappeared."

Makarov raised an eyebrow at this. "How do you mean?"

"The region it was last spotted in, it's not there, only evidence that it was remained."

Makarov thought on what she just said. "That is rather odd. Don't worry about it for now, go back after it when it reappears. How bad was the destruction?"

Erza was silent for a moment. "Almost nothing was left standing. I do not believe this is any ordinary demon."

The Master looked grave at this news. "There are no official accounts on what it looks like. Nor any patterns or connections in its attacks. Keep a close eye on this matter." With that their conversation was over.

Erza walked back out into the main room of the guild. Except for Gray's missing form everything seemed ordinary. Natsu had provoked Laxus into a fight while Lucy tried to calm him down. Mirajane cleaned out empty glasses at the bar, chatting with Lisanna. Nab stood at the request board "looking" for a job. Cana sat drinking another keg of beer. All of them oblivious to the horror Titania had witnessed earlier.

* * *

Masaru stood looking at the charred remains before her. A scarlet haired mage had been here earlier. Masaru decided not to make herself known at the time, nor was she found. She sat a distance a ways, from her spot which she sat she studied the mage. No doubt she was one of the many mages sent to find the demon. Interestingly enough, she wore the same mark on her arm that Gray wore. _Same guild then. _

She continued watching as the scarlet tried finding a trail left by the beast._ You're wasting your time, _she thought._ it can't be tracked that easily. _The blue mark on the girl's arm had captioned her attention once more._ Fairy Tail, huh?_ _I'll put a request up for the beast there. Gray will no doubt take it up when he gets back._ More importantly, Gray did need to come back soon. His guild mates will start to worry. _Last day, Gray. Hopefully you didn't waste it._

* * *

Gray moved swiftly among the frozen terrain. The whole area was filled with creations of his. Glaciers stood proudly, toughing the sky. Burning ice stood in a pile steaming but not melting. Countless spells he had done showed their success along the landscape. Others buried beneath sheets of ice under him.

His favorite though was the frozen forest. He changed a majority of the trees into pure ice magic. Surprisingly, the trees never died. The trees continued to grow higher and stronger, long after he had done the spell. They even thrived in this cold environment.

Gray smiled at himself, certainly he was stronger. His reflexes were sharper. His magic energy grew more and more. A dark feeling nagged at the back of his mind but otherwise he was mostly the same. The pendant around his neck seemed to calm him down at times when his ice experiments went a little haywire. It most have also kept the nagging down also. If people really did go insane after learning magic like this he understood why. No doubt he would be regretting something right now if the spell around his neck hadn't presided over him during this time.

Gray saw a light flash in the distance that looked like the portal Masaru made weeks ago. The ice mage watched as a figure stepped out, shivering slightly against the cold wind. Gray waved at the figure he recognized as Masaru. "Has it been that long already?" he called.

"Something like that." She yelled over the wind. "Are you ready, Ice Boy?"


	6. Chapter 6

**I do not own Fairy Tail.**

Gray slowly made his way down a winding road into Magnolia. He happily moved his way down the busy streets. He whistled to himself and there was a swing in his step, in short, he was so unlike his usual self a few towns people that recognized him gawked. He kept up his pleasant mood until he reached the outskirts of the town.

He hoped he hadn't been gone long enough for anyone to worry. Or more importantly, ask questions on why it took so long for him to come back. As much as he loved his guild mates, he didn't want them prying to about what happened. He decided to wait on telling anyone about his newfound abilities till he was completely used to them.

He made his last few steps on the route to Fairy Tail and flung open the guild doors. Gray had resumed his previous mood and was whistling happily once more. Some members turned their heads at him as he arrived through the doors, taken slightly taken aback at his uncommon, cheerful mood. Natsu stared at him with surprise written so clearly on his face Gray almost laughed. Evidently, a few mages had been involved in a fight until he walked in. Natsu's fist was around Laxus' collar, who had his fist a few inches from the fire mage. Gajeel and his own fist already on someone's face. In the back of the guild Cana, who had been watching on the sidelines, stopped her drinking. Erza, Mira, and Lucy looked as if they had been in a conversation but stopped chatting when he walked in. Makarov raised a eyebrow at the mage but said nothing.

"Hi, guys. Been a while, hasn't it?" Gray made his way over to the request board to look for a job.

"What the hell!" Natsu had escaped from Laxus' grasp and storming his way over to him. "Bastard, where have you been!"

Gray scanned over the request, looking for the one Masaru had described. "Oh, you know, here and there." Gray found it on clipped near the edge of the board, a spot most people wouldn't have noticed it at.

"You're in an awfully good mood." Erza commented. The other Fairy Tail members had returned to their daily lives, performing miscellaneous tasks.

"Hmm, am I?" Gray pulled the request off the board. "Oi, Mira," he called, "I'll be going now."

Mira smiled at him. "So soon? Good luck, Gray."

"Thanks," he called behind him, as he headed to the doors.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" a rather annoyed fire mage yelled after him.

"On a mission, see you guys in a little while."

"Like hell you will." Natsu ran out after the ice mage. "What's with all the solo missions? You suddenly too good for us?"

"Natsu!" Lucy snapped.

"It's fine, Lucy." Gray told her. "Now if you'll excuse me, Natsu, I'll be going."

"You looking for a fight!" Natsu ignited his flames and came rushing at the ice mage.

Gray sidestepped the other mage and ducked at his rebound move. "Nah, not at the moment." Gray swung his leg out and caught his swiped his rival's legs out from under him. "Some other time, maybe." Gray walked away from a stupefied Natsu sitting in the middle of the trail up to Fairy Tail's doors. Natsu's yelling could still be heard even after Gray was quite a bit away from the guild.

Makarov sat at Fairy Tail's bar, staring after one of his children. He couldn't exactly put his finger on it, but somehow Gray was too unbelievably different than when he left a week earlier. The old Master took a sip of his beer he had been drinking, wondering what had happened to the ice mage. "It's so nice to see the mages in such a good mood." Mira said next to him, one of her joyful smiles in place.

"Mmm," Makarov replied. He was only half listening to her words. The old man was too busy thinking about what one of his brats had gotten himself into.

* * *

Gray made his way to the train station. His whistling had changed into a hum. He swayed back and forth on his heels, waiting for the train. The request was clutched in his hand. As Masaru explained it, this was mostly just live practice for him. What the real purpose for this was to make sure he showed up at the guild so no one would worry. Afterwards, she said she would start teaching 'open' spells to him.

The train he had been waiting for pulled up to the loading platform. Gray moseyed onto to train. The whole mission was basically planned out. Some demon had been terrorizing a few villages and Masaru tracked it down for him. He just had to finish the job. She had mentioned something about this being a lesser demon for his newly formed magic, so it wouldn't take that long giving them plenty of leeway before he had to reappear at the guild.

The train slowly departed from the station, picking up more speed as it moved forward. Gray's mind was filled with the new spells he was soon to learn. He spent a majority of the train ride just thinking about what intense power he was to gain.

* * *

Mirajane stood in front of the request board, a slight worried expression on her face. She held one of the record books foe missions in one hand, a quill in the other which she tapped against her forehead. "What's wrong, Mira-nee?" Lisanna called to her sister.

"Hmm, maybe nothing. It's just the request aren't adding up." Something was amiss in Fairy Tail's record book. "According to the records for today, around twenty four jobs have been taken today. But only twenty three jobs are gone from the request board."

"That's strange." Lisanna said to her sister. "Are you sure all that many jobs were taken?"

Mira nodded. "All this week's requests are accounted for. The only thing I can think of is that there was a job that wasn't meant to be here."

Lisanna's eyes widened. "Do you think that could happen?"

Mira thought about this for a moment. "Now that I think about it, I don't recall posting the job Gray took earlier."

Makarov, who had been listening to their conversation, suddenly spewed out the beer he had been drinking. Mira and Lisanna turned to look at him. Through choked coughs the Master was able to make out, "What job was it?"

* * *

"You're late." Masaru sat on a tree limb, waiting for the now arrived ice mage.

"Sorry, "Gray said, "now, where's this demon?!" Masaru motioned for him to follow her. Winding their way between the looming trees above them they moved swiftly through the forest. Trees remained scorched and dying from the demon he was about to face. Gray's face was eager, his eyes alight with enthusiasm. He was practically dying from the wait of having to use his magic.

"Calm down," Masaru ordered, "you're as giddy as a school girl, and it's kind of creepy."

"Sorry, I can't help it."

"Well, if you're that excited, go ahead and start."

"Huh?" A streak raced past Gray, he only was able to catch it through his peripherals. If it wasn't for his newly refined reflexes he would he been shish kabob. Dodging to his left Gray took in the creature with one swift glance. It measured roughly eleven feet while on all fours. It wasn't any exact demon he had previously faced. Its talons measured a foot long. It's fang were too large to be contained in its mouth, instead they hung down, poised to bite. Probably the most obvious of its traits was that a trail of steam rose where it stood.

The beast lunged forward, jaws snapping at his throat. Gray dodged again. When the creature landed it slammed into a tree behind where Gray had stood. As soon as the demon touched it, steam came from the tree. Slowly the bark became black and the tree withered up completely. _That's new._ Gray moved his arm up in a fast movement. A tower of ice shot from the ground, carrying the monster up into the sky.

The imprisonment didn't last long. The creature opened its mouth and released a high pitched scream. A green gas came from its mouth, melting his ice. Gray glared at the demon, this was taking too long. The animal jumped from its tower. "Burning Ice!" Gray poised his hands out and a wave of magic energy came from him. This time it screamed in pain. Ice incased the demon, searing into its flesh.

Gray stood straight up. Was it really this simple? "Good job, ice boy."

Gray turned towards the direction of Masaru's voice. She decided to stay out of this, letting Gray experiment with his new power. "Is that it?"

A nod, "it was a minor demon, meant for small jobs. It's been running amuck, though. That scarlet head form your guild was sent after it, couldn't find it." She jumped down from the tree branch she was sitting in. "Now, let's get started."

Gray nodded. "What's first?"

"Alright, most helpful spells first." Masaru stood in thought for a second. "Gray, do everyone a favor and don't use any open spells or pure magic in front of people unless you have to."

Gray raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"It's easier that way. Don't even mention it. It's just once people find out about it there's always someone crazy enough to look for it. When that happens people start looking for demons like Deliora that can get rid of the block they have on pure magic." Gray nodded in understanding. "Okay, glad you get it. Now, three basic spells. I used two on you that other time, magic drain and restoration. Magic drain is sort of nullify, but instead of just dulling someone's magic you completely destroy it and it stays gone for days, leaving them helpless. If used well enough, you can take away someone's magic completely, meaning they will never be able to use it again as long as they live. Restoration is the opposite. You can use your magic energy to make more magic energy, creating an endless supply as long as you have a scrap left when you restore energy. Last of the three is transport magic. I used this when I sent and retrieved you from your training place. This works in other dimensions as well as inside creates portals to other locations. It's trickier than the first two and requires more energy. But once you learn it you'll be able to get from one place to another in a blink of an eye."

"So how do you perform these?"

* * *

Gray worked throughout the afternoon and well into the next morning. With every try his form improved. Not a single move was wasted. Every ounce of his energy was well used and held a purpose. Masaru stopped him the next day, saying he should return to his guild on account the fake request was found out. "Oh, and Gray," she added as he was leaving, "next time you're facing a real demon. Work on these three spells till then."

Gray nodded in response. "Make sure it's worth my time this time." He waved back her before heading back towards Fairy Tail.

* * *

A man in a dark cloak made his way down a dark corridor. A scar was directly below his right eye and a black emblem was present on his arm. Power radiated from him but not near as much as the man he was about to report to.

The man entered a dark room and immediately dropped to his knees. "I have reports, sire." The man said.

"On with it then."

"Yes, sire. Another report has risen on pure magic."

"One of the known cases?"

"I'm afraid not, sire. A new one is present."

The man he was addressing swore under his breathe. "Find out what you can about them. This whole matter has grown into an annoyance. No mercy, if they go against us end them."

The man nodded at the command. "Yes, Lord Zeref."


	7. Chapter 7

**I do not own Fairy Tail.**

Gray made his way to the train station. Unfortunately, transport seemed a rather difficult spell, and he hadn't been able to use it too well and could only travel a few feet. So for the time being, he was stuck to traditional forms of transportation. The temporary training grounds he had recently used was a few miles away from the station, giving him a long enough walk to clear his head.

The more he worked with pure magic the more the nagging at the back of his head got to him. The serene environment around him calmed him a bit. Gray started fingering the necklace around his neck. He wondered how long it would be until Gray was able to achieve balance, hopefully not too long. Sighing, the mage continued walking.

* * *

Erza moved through a small town along with Natsu, Happy, and Lucy. Hurriedly, they made their way to the woods on the other side of town. Makarov's words lingered in her mind._ Bring him back as soon as you can, unofficial request are not to be trusted. Besides ,I've got a bad feeling about this._ The scarlet wondered what he meant by that.

The Titania picked up her pace, the others following right behind her. "Natsu," she called behind her, "you were closest to him, what was the request?"

The dragon slayer was silent for a moment. "I'm not sure, but I think it had to do with a demon."

The three mages raced through the forest, looking for their fellow comrade. Cana had used her card magic to predict where the mage was, but it was only a general idea. Erza's heart jumped into her throat as familiar scorch marks started to show on trees. _There's no way, if Gray went after that thing…_

Erza shook her head. There was no way she would let herself think like that._ But the exact same demon? That's too much of a coincidence._

The three mages ran at a speed that would make Happy's max speed look pathetic. They ran into the worst of the scorched woods, trees withered on the ground and the smell of death wafted through the air. Moving somehow even faster the mages ran forward straight into…

…Straight into Gray.

Gray seemed surprised to see his nakama here, but only for a second. "Hey guys, what are you doing here?"

A panting Natsu glared at the ice mage. "What's with the casual talk? Do you know what type of job you took!?"

"Well, yea-"

"No time for that." Erza stated. "Where's the demon?" The mage requiped into her Flame Empress armor, her sword gleaming in front of her.

"Oh, you mean the one that did all this?" Gray motioned to the blackened vegetation. "Don't worry about it, it's taken care of."

A look of disbelief crossed Erza's face. "But, that demon was the one that-"

Erza was cut short by a sniffling Happy. "Gray!" the cat yelled, flinging himself into the mages arms. "We we're so worried. Even Natsu was."

"WAS NOT!"

Happy continued sobbing into Gray's chest. "What if something happened? You would have left me alone with Lucy."

"Hey!" the Celestial mage yelled.

Gray smiled at the cat and patted his fur. "Don't worry, nothing happened."

"How can you say that!" Natsu yelled. "You got to fight a dangerous demon and I didn't! Come on, we're not leaving till we find one I can fight so we're even."

That snapped Erza out of her thinking of what happened between the ice mage and demon. "Come on," she ordered, grabbing Natsu by his collar. "We'll be going back to the guild then." She dragged a fuming Natsu behind her and made her way back to the town.

"Say, Gray," she heard Lucy say behind her, "how did you take the demon down? Even Master was worried about this."

"Really? It wasn't much really." Erza listened to her friend's reply, wondering just what had changed in the ice mage.

* * *

Masaru sat in the woods with her head in her palm, concentrating on a conversation in her mind. _No mercy, if they go against us end them. _Masaru's eyes snapped open. Zeref's words echoed in her mind. Gray's progress, though extraordinary, had not gone unnoticed by the watchful eyes of Zeref.

_There's not enough time._ Her mind was focus, her forehead creased in thought. _Sorry, Gray, but thing are about to get messy soon._ Masaru stood up, dusting herself off and began moving the opposite direction Gray had. A plan had stared forming in her mind. A glow appeared around her as she began transporting to her next destination.

_Time for you to meet the others._

* * *

Gray sat at the bar at Fairy Tail. It had been a few days since they had returned for the false job. Master had asked if Gray meet the person who "posted" but the request, but he only answered he hadn't. He felt guilty about lying to Master, but it was probably for the best he didn't know. Though Natsu had challenged him a few times to a fight these past few days, Gray had refrained from using magic. An action that only annoyed the fire mage. Twice he had caught Erza staring at him, along with Juvia, but he was used to Juvia. When Erza watched him she looked as if she was judging the mage.

Gray watched his guild mates carry on with their usual lives. He had been waiting these past few days for Masaru to tell him what to do next. She said she would contact him when she was ready for him. He wondered what she meant by that, but figured he would find out soon enough.

A few hours past and the sun had set low in the sky. He had been listening to a conversation Happy was having with Lucy about fish when a voice sounded in his mind. _Other side of town, get there soon, portal waiting for you, tell someone you'll be gone for a while so they won't worry._ Gray casually took a sip of his drink, trying to make it appear that no one was talking to him. He slowly got up from the counter and made his way over to where Lucy was sitting with Happy. Normally you would tell the Master when you were leaving, but the old man wasn't there for once, instead he went to the regular meeting.

"Hi Gray." The cat greeted him.

"Hey guys, can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, what is it?" The blonde asked.

"I'm visiting someone so I'll be gone a while. If anyone asks where I went, tell them not to worry."

Lucy seemed surprised by that. "Really? Who?"

"No one you would know." Gray called behind him, moving towards the door. Before he could be questioned any further he was out the door and down the path leading from the guild. Gray picked up his speed once he was away from the guild, oblivious to the dragon slayer traveling behind him.

* * *

Natsu followed his friend through Magnolia and past the other edge of town. He'd gotten irritated at the sudden change in the ice mage. The fire mage was curious to see why his friend had been acting the way he has, but has yet to be able to find the answer.

Natsu watched as his friend started to look for something. "Where exactly?" He heard his friend's voice. "Got it," Natsu wondered if Gray had gone insane._ Who is he talking to? There's no one else here._ The fire mage ducked and hid behind a nearby bush as Gray turned towards his direction. "Don't worry, I see it." Natsu listened to his friends footsteps.

"I can't take it anymore!" Natsu jumped up. "Gray! I demand to know who you're talkin-" Natsu stared at the empty space in front of him. Gray was nowhere to be seen and there was no trace of him. "WHAT THE HELLLLL!"

* * *

**Thanks for reading and for the reviews. I'll update soon.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry it took so long to update. I've been working on my movie for my digital class (takes some time). Anyways, I still do not own Fairy Tail, and enjoy.**

* * *

Gray stepped out the other side of the portal and onto soft grass. The young mage glanced around, he had no idea where he had been sent and didn't recognize this place. "That's because we're not in Fiore." A voice behind him said.

Gray turned around to see Masaru sitting on a branch behind him. A thought popped into his head, "Hey, Masaru, can you read my mind?"

Masaru shifted her gaze to him. "You make it to easy." Before he could ask what she meant by that she swung her legs over and landed on the ground in front of him. "Now, down to business. There's a few things you need to do so get started.

"With what."

Before the mage could answer a howl rang out through the area. It sounded painfully similar to Deliora's roar he heard when he was a child. The volume itself was so loud Gray had to cover his ears. Moving his eyes up Gray scanned the surroundings. A demon the size of Deliora was stepping out of a portal and onto the ground. Trees were crushed under its feet alone. "What the hell is that thing?!"

"Your next target." Masaru answered. "Good luck. There's a village several miles from here. I suggest you kill it before it gets there."

"You're not going to help!?" Gray yelled. He turned to where she was standing. Only an empty spot remained. "You're just going to leave!" Another howl came from the beast. "Dammit!" He yelled at the beast. It had started moving away from him, towards the direction he assumed the village was.

Gray ran towards it. He moved his arms into position as he ran. "Ice Make: Lance!" Azure glowing lances shot out. They flew around the creature and landed in its chest. The demon stopped moving for a moment, then turned around to where Gray was standing. "Oh, shit." He muttered.

The demon raised its arm up, and just as quickly brought it down to where Gray stood. A leather hand crashed down to where he had been standing. Gray dodged to the side. The ground where the hand landed was forced down, creating a crater. "Ice Make: Gungnir!"

A giant lance hit the creature dead center, going straight through its chest. A grin spread across Gray's face, but disappeared almost instantly. The monster jerked to the side and the ice shattered. Blood oozed out of its chest, but it seemed unaffected. It brought its foot up and moved it down to where Gray stood. Dodging again, he missed being crushed by a few inches. "Burning Ice!"

Ice shot from the ground, almost completely encasing the creature. A scream rose from its throat. Steam came from its skin, the distinct smell of burning flesh traveled in the air. Its arms smashed through his ice and it flung its arm at Gray.

He didn't have enough time to dodge this time. Gray was sent flying back from the hit and crash landed against a tree. He heard some ribs crack when he hit the ground. Miraculously, though, he was still alive. Gray moved to his feet. The demon, believing he was done with the annoyance of Gray, had moved back to walking towards the village.  
"I'm not done with you!" Gray screamed at the beast. He slammed his fist onto his opposite palm. Moving them outwards a rampart formed in front of the demon, stopping its peregrinate.

* * *

Masaru sat in a high branch of a tree, watching the scene before her play out. She watched as Gray ran forward towards the demon. Her eyes widened as she watched. Gray's form began to shimmer then disappear._ When did he learn to do that?_ Gray reappeared in above the creature, directly above its head. _He's improving fast, but how was he able to master transport that fast._

Out of the few mages that used pure magic Masaru was the only one that could use transport to where she could skip making the portal and go directly to her destination. A trick used best in battle._ It takes years till be able to do that,_ she thought,_ what exactly are you, Gray?_

* * *

Gray somehow appeared above its head. He had no idea how he'd gotten there, but he wasn't going to let the opportunity go. An ice hammer formed in his hands, and he brought it down, crashing the creature's skull.

The demon stumbled a few feet back, leaning back. Gray jumped down from its head to its chest. A magic circle appeared at his fist which hit the demon in its chest. Ice magic spread through the demon, turning it to a frozen replica. Seconds later the demon shattered into countless shards of ice.

Gray fell to the ground. His breath was knocked out of him when he landed. He slowly got to his knees, then his feet, gripping his side where ribs were broken.

"You look like crap." A rather unconcerned voice said.

Gray looked up to see Masaru walking towards him. "Nice to see you too." Masaru reached out and toughed his side. A small glow appeared under her fingertips. Gray could feel his ribs repairing under his skin. _She can heal?_ "Thanks for the help back there, it really saved the day." Gray said sarcastically.

Masaru glared at him. "I've killed my fair share of demons. You're learning, practice makes almost perfect." She gestured for him to follow her. "Now hurry up, there's a few people it would be in your best interest to meet."

* * *

A man watched a few people enter and leave a guild building. A black emblem was present on his arm and a scar was visible beneath his eye. He studied the scene before him. The power he sensed earlier was gone, all that remained was a guild of pathetic, average mages.

Man formed a transport portal and left the scene. He didn't have time to waste on mages like those. He had is orders from Zeref, and looked forward to carrying them out. He hoped this mystery mage put up a good fight, it had been so long since someone has.

* * *

Gray and Masaru walked deeper into the heart of the forest. Both were silent through the trip, neither not knowing how to break to awkward silence. After what seemed like a lifetime of this, Masaru spoke. "Meeting place should be around here somewhere."

"Who are we meeting?"

Gray received no reply to his question. A few more moments of silence proceeded until a thought popped into Gray's mind. "You never answered my question earlier."

"Which was?"

"Can you read minds?"

"That wasn't your question."

A confused look crossed Gray's face. "Yes it was."

"No, you asked if I could read your mind. Two completely different things."

"Will you just answer the damn question."

A sigh of annoyance came from her. "To an extent, yes, it's fairly simple."

"To what extent?"

"If a mage is focused enough he can block it, but only a few can do that."

Gray was mute for a few seconds. "Say, how many open spells are there?"

"Forty-eight."

"Am I going to learn all of them?"

Masaru considered the question. "It all depends, the closest I know that anyone has come is forty-one. You can try to learn them all, but there isn't anyone that can teach you all of them. We're here."

Gray surveyed the view in front of him, taking in his surroundings. "Well look what the cat dragged in." Gray looked at the owner of the voice, he man that seemed in about his thirties with brown hair and was slightly unshavem. He sat on a log, watching the two mages. "Haven't seen your face in a while, Mace. And who is this?" The man asked, nodding at Gray. Gray was shocked for a moment. _Is someone kidding around with Masaru? How does anyone joke around with that monster._ Even more surprising, Masaru didn't even seem annoyed, she even smiled, which was the first real smile Gray had seen that wasn't a smirk from her.

"I'm Gray." He managed to say, getting over his shock.

"Well, Gray, welcome to the dysfunctional, nutty, family."

Gray was confused once more. "Family?"

"It's just what he calls us." Masaru answered his question.

"Luckily that's it, don't think any of us could stand being related to you." The man said, pointing the statement towards Masaru. "I'll give you props, kid, putting up with her for this long." He directed at Gray. "I'm Daiki." He held out his hand to the ice mage, which Gray shook.

"Nice to meet you." Something about this man reminded Gray of Gildarts, very easygoing yet warmhearted.

"Since you're the new kid on the block, it'd only be fair if I asked you how you're holding up with everything."

The question slightly caught him off guard. "Fine." Gray wasn't sure what the mage meant by the question. The older man raised an eyebrow at him. _He can probably read thoughts like Masaru._

A grin from the man. "You got that right, boy. Don't worry, I won't once I trust you, after all, I've got ethics, unlike Mace over there." A growl from the insulted mage. "I meant about you being marked."

_Oh, he means the death magic._

"I honestly haven't thought about it much."

Daiki laughed at that. "That's an unusual response. You either have guts, kid, or you're an idiot."

"It's the second one." Masaru said under her breath, but load enough for the mages to hear. Gray glared at her. "What?" she asked innocently.

"Don't worry, Gray, she's not so bad once you get to know her."

"Are you sure?"

Daiki laughed chuckled again. "I like this one." He said to no one in particular. "He's the only one with a pleasant attitude. Now, Gray, while she's busy glaring at us, tell me about your magic."

"I use ice magic." The raven haired answered. "And you?"

"Oh, this and that, whatever gets the job done." The ice mage wondered exactly what the man meant by that. "Now, what I really want to know, is what we're waiting on." Daiki raised a quizzical eyebrow at Masaru. "Care to answer the question, Mace?"

Masaru glared at the older man. "We're waiting on the imbecile."

Daiki laughed at that. "You honestly think he would bother to show up?"

"WHO THE HELL IS DOUBTING ME!" Gray turned to the sound of the new voice. A boy stood glaring at Daiki.

"Then again, if anyone could get him to show up, it's the demon over there."

Masaru glared at the boy, "Nice to see you finally showed up."

"Don't you dare use that condescending tone on me!" Gray watched as either the only person brave enough, or dumb enough attacked Masaru.

Masaru's fist contacted hard in the boy's stomach. Gray heard the boy's breath get knocked out of him. He watched as the boy reeled his fist back and it shimmered with magical energy. He boy aimed at her face, which Masaru easily dodged. Side steeping him she brought her knee up into his back, hard. "If you're done now, let's talk like somewhat civilized people."

The young teenager's glare turned cold as ice. Masaru matched him stare for stare. Tension rose in the air. Gray cleared his throat, trying to break the strained silence. "And you are?" Gray asked.

His glare turned towards Gray. "Who wants to know." It wasn't very much like a question. His voice was filled with an unsaid challenge. A growling sound came from Masaru.

Daiki sighed, "Gray, this is Takeshi. Takeshi, Gray." Gray studied the boy in front of him. The appeared about fourteen in age. Messy black hair covered his head, brown eyes glared from under what hair fell into his eyes.

"Nice to meet you, Takeshi." Gray extended his hand towards him. Takeshi glared at the gesture, as if it was some sort of trick. He didn't reach out to shake hands, instead just stood there.

"If you're all done with introductions, it's time to discuss why we're here." Masaru spoke up. The other three mages watched her as she continued. "Minus Gray, it's safe to say the rest of us have noticed the increase of attacks. Zeref's followers are stirring. I propose we start communication between us." Three pairs of eyes meet hers.

Silence stretched on between the mages. Daiki cleared his throat to get their attention. "Counter proposal, we stay in contact, we add to that. You three brats form a team."

Masar opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by Takeshi first. "Why the hell would we do that?! We can't even ta-" The teen was cut short by Masaru slamming her fist down on him.  
"It's not the best idea. Nor will it work out well."

Daiki raised an eyebrow at this. "Why not? Besides, it's not only a single demon at a time anymore. They're starting to attack in packs. The more we work together the stronger we are."

Masaru and Takeshi started arguing at the same time. Gray's voice rose up above their yells."It's not a bad idea." Everyone stopped yelling and stared at him. "All I mean is… Isn't two better than one? Then three would be unstoppable. It's not like we have to always be stuck together. None of us want to and I couldn't. Just when the fight is too big for one mage."

Not a word was uttered. Daiki and Masaru seemed to reflect on this. "If you honestly think that is going to work, you truly are an idiot." That little remark came from Takeshi.

"Quiet." Masaru ordered the younger teen. "I have to agree, something'd been off of late. If anything major happens we shouldn't be caught off guard. Besides, let's just say we have reason to believe Zeref's men plan on making a move soon."

"It's settled then." Daiki finished for her. "You three are stuck together for now. I'll be going now." The older man rose from his seat and without another word waved at the three younger mages. A portal opened up and he was gone.

"Damn old man." Takeshi muttered under his breath. "Orders us around and then leaves."

* * *

The man with the scar sat outside the guild building once more. The power he had sensed earlier had yet to return to the scene. He was just about to leave again when a mage came out of the guild. Normally he would have ignored any low down mage, but this one caught his attention. "Dammit! Where did that icy bastard go off to?!" A rather obnoxiously, loud, rosy haired mage yelled out.

"I told you already." A blonde women said next to him. "Gray said he was going somewhere for a while, he'll be back soon."

"Forget him!" The rosy haired one yelled out. "We don't need him."

"Still," the blonde said, "he has been acting rather strange lately. I hope he's okay."

"Aye." A blue cat said next to the two mages.

_Gray, is it? Well young mage, your life is about to become interesting beyond your wildest dreams. And to think, your own comrades gave up your identity._

* * *

Gray poked the emblems of their camp fire with a stick, betting the flame to spark up. His mind reflected on the day's events. Any peace between the three mages was shattered not long after Daiki left. Takeshi had challenged Masaru to a duel. A battle that ended with the surrounding area looking like Natsu had just destroyed the place.

At the moment the three of them sat in silence. The tension between the younger teen and Masaru was so thick in the air Gray could have cut it with an icicle. The ice mage had attempted to end the silence a few times, but to no success. "So…" Gray tried again. "Are you two the only other pure magic mages?"

The other two mages stared at each other. Almost as if they were daring each other to speak. A thought occurred to the ice mage then. "Wait, Masaru, didn't you say there was three others. Two you've talked to and one that didn't care?"

"That's true. When I said the one that didn't care I was referring to Takeshi, though."

"What the hell are you saying!" The teen yelled, getting into a fighting stance.

"Oh, nothing. Just that you don't care about anything."

"Why you-"

"SO!" Gray yelled over him, before another fight could break out. "Who's the other mage then?" Both Masaru and Takeshi went silent at this. Gray instantly wondered if he'd hit a taboo topic. " Umm, if you two don't want to ta-"

"It's fine," Masaru cut him off. "His name's Isamu, nut you really don't want to meet him."

"What's so bad about him."

"He'll kill you. He's different from us. He doesn't fight against Zeref, he works for Zeref. He's one of the Dark Mage's top generals."

Gray was utterly shocked by that. _Work for Zeref? What is wrong with this guy?_ "So he's strong then."

"Obviously," Takeshi rolled his eyes at Gray.

Masaru glared at the teen. "Let's just say, if you ever see a man with an extremely powerful aura, and a scar under his right eye, turn the other way."


	9. Chapter 9

**I do not own Fairy Tail. **

* * *

Gray walked through the green forest with his new comrades. They silently made their way to their destination. So far the first day together was off to a rough start. The most compassion the two more experienced pure magic mages showed were glares of detest at each other. Gray was beginning to doubt the idea of them being together. Of course, it didn't help that they had started the day with Masaru "affectionately" kicking everyone awake.

At the moment they were on their first mission. When the two males had woken up they were told they were needed somewhere. As it turned out, that somewhere was a few hundred miles away from their campsite. Transport had gotten them most of the way, but the exact destination was unknown and thus they were forced to look for whatever was their opponent. "What exactly are we searching for?" Gray asked, breaking the silence.

"Nothing in particular."

"That clears it up." Masaru glared at Takeshi's snide remark.

"Here's a question," Gray wondered out loud, trying to not let the mood turn towards hostility. "Why do you two hate each other?" Maybe not the best topic to keep from enmity.

Masaru and Takeshi glanced at the other. "No real reason," Masaru said, "other than he's annoying as hell."

Takeshi's gaze turned into a death stare. "You're one to talk. Besides, what makes you think you're so good?"

Gray sighed. Though their antics were petty, he could completely relate. It was the same thing he had with Natsu, neither had a real reason to be rivals, but it didn't stop them. Thinking of the fire mage made him flinch. The idea of going back to Fairy Tail, though his home, was rather difficult to think about. It's one thing to show improvement, but his magic had become inhumanely powerful. He had already decided to leave the part of him having a death spell was out. There was no way he would make anyone worry, or have them waste their time on him trying to find a cure. The ice mage knew as soon as anyone knew about it the whole guild would make sure Wendy and Porlyusica were looking for a cure.

A loud curse was yelled out and the ice mage drew his attention back in front of him. Gray watched just in time as Takeshi was sent flying off from a hit from Masaru. Gray paled,_ she's scarier than Erza._

* * *

Natsu stood in the middle of the guildhall, challenging every mage in his sight. Lucy groaned at her friend as another mage was sent flying past her, another victim of one of Natsu's punches. "It can't be helped." The requip mage said next to her. "He's bored without Gray to bicker with. He'll calm down when Gray returns."

Lucy sighed at that. "Except Gray's going to be gone for a while. Plus, Natsu will probably destroy the guild before he gets back."

Erza sat silently next to her. "Has Gray seemed odd you?"

The question caught the blonde mage off guard. "Well, now that you mention it, he has seemed a little off lately. He's been gone a lot and there's just something… _different."_

The scarlet nodded at this. "As much as I hate to put him on the spot, I think a few questions should be answered when he returns." Lucy stared at her. Erza's tone was different than her friendly tone she usually had. This was more like the Erza that fought with monsters.

"Erza, what's wrong?"

A look of consideration was written across her face. "Probably nothing," she said slowly, "but when Gray was last here his magic power was different then his creation magic. It was almost ominous."

Lucy shivered at her friend's words. She hoped when their friend returned he would be back to his usual self.

Makarov sat at the bar, eavesdropping on the conversation between Erza and Lucy. _So Erza felt it too, _the elderly man thought,_ figures, after all, she's not unobservant. She's wrong though, Gray's power wasn't almost ominous. It was deadly._

* * *

Takeshi pushed himself up from the ground. _That damn Masaru! Why am I even putting up with her?_ He froze when a low growl sounded behind him. Turning around slowly he looked at the beast behind him. It wasn't exactly an uncommon demon of Zeref's, but he had only meet a few in his life. It stood eight feet tall on all fours. Its pelt was black and eyes glowed red. Drool dripped from its yellowed fangs onto the ground. A smirk spread across Takeshi's face, _finally, something to fight._

"Do you hear that?" Gray asked. A growl rang out through the forest.

"Aye, sounds like Takeshi found our demon."

The young teen dodged to the side. He sent his arms out in front of him. Wind shot out in front of him, sending fatal cuts along the demons body. The beast whimpered in pain and fell to the ground. Unfortunately, these things traveled in packs. Ducking the swipe of a paw he raised back up and shot another deadly slice of air at another demon. Any other mage would have been mincemeat by now. He was different though, no pure magic mage would lose to a few demons like these. Takeshi swung his arm into a beast and sent to crashing into another. A grin was spreading across his face, this is almost _too_ easy.

"What is that thing?!" Gray yelled as they neared the younger mage.

"It's called a Quietus Messenger. One of Zeref's pets." Masaru answered next to him. "Nothing to worry about, these are too young to cause any real damage." Gray watched as a deadly wind sliced across the demons._ So this is the power of another pure magic mage. _Gray watched in wonder as Takeshi battled the beasts. _For a boy so young, he can sure hold his own. _Gray dodged as a beast was sent flying towards him. _Though he is pretty reckless._

_ You're stronger than him._ Gray snapped up at that. He turned towards Masaru, she showed no signs of speaking in his head, but somehow he knew it wasn't her anyways.

_Come again?_ Gray was given no answer to what the voice meant. The nagging at the back of his mind tugged at him. Gray continued watching Takeshi fight.

_ You could beat him, the other one too if you tried._

Gray's attention was on the voice._ Who are you?_

_Isn't that obvious?_

Gray didn't answer. Nor did the voice say anything after that. The young teen in front of him finished his attack and Gray could hear him mutter something about it being too simple. "Oi, Masaru!" Takeshi called. "Isn't the part of being a _team_ working together. Nice to see you're doing your part."

The female member narrowed her eyes. "Sorry, just figured you needed the practice."

Gray could practically see a fight forming. His two fellow team members began butting heads._ You're wasting time. Eastern country, middle class demon, go already._ Gray snapped into an upright stance, surprised by the new voice. This time it was calmer, it was threatening either. "We need to go."

Takeshi and Masaru glanced at him. "What do you mean?" Takeshi inquired.

"There's an eastern country that requires our presence. I suggest we go."

Takeshi looked at Masaru. "How the hell does he know that? Did you even sense anything?"

Masaru stood quietly, deathly still. "Aye, it's weak, but it's slowly appearing."_ How did he know?_ She wondered. _How did he sense that before I did?_ "Let's go." She moved her arm out in front of her and created a transport portal._ How is he progressing this fast? If any other mage developed at this rate they would burn out._ The three mages stepped through the portal and onto the other side._ How close is he to Zeref's power?_

* * *

Natsu sat at the guild's bar, enjoying a drink after coming back from his mission. A few days had passed since the ice block left, and Natsu was enjoying every second of the other's absence. At least, he had led the others to believe. In truth, he missed bickering with the ice mage, and was starting to concern from his constant disappearances.

Master Makarov sat talking to a few members of Fairy Tail when Mira came out from one of the back rooms. "Master, there's a private call for you on the communication lacrima." Makarov raised his brow. It wasn't often that he got a message via lacrima. It was even rarer for it to be a private message. The old man stood up and made his way towards the back room.

Closing the door behind him, he enclosed himself in the small room. Sweat beaded on his skin as he saw who the message was from. Members of the Magic Council were present on the other line. Makarov cleared his throat. "How may I help you?"

Erza sat with Lucy at one of the tables. They chatted a bit, but mostly they watched Natsu act foolishly as he challenged Laxus to a fight. A loud banging sound came from one of the back rooms as Master came out of one, swinging the door into the wall. "Listen up brats," he called, "I have a job for you."

"What is it, Master?" Titania asked. He seemed tense to the young mage, and slightly agitated.

"Message from the magic council. More precisely, the Magic Council and Councils in other countries. Several nations want us on this mission and you brats are going to do it." He concluded, pointing a finger towards their direction.

"Mission?" Lucy asked next to her.

Makarov nodded. "The Light Team will once again be formed. The other guilds have already been notified. Wendy, Lucy, Erza, Natsu, you four will be going on this trip."

"What about Gray?" The fire mage asked.  
"Unless he shows up by tomorrow he's not going. This is urgent."

"What's the mission?" Erza asked.

"That's the iffy part." Master replied. "An unknown force has been appearing across several countries, and is believed to be with Zeref." The guild became deathly still. The mention of Zeref set all the mages on edge. "You brats need to go find whatever force keeps appearing, no excuses."

* * *

Daiki stood on the mountain side. A rather high class demon had made an appearance earlier, but had disappeared as quickly as it came. Every creak and groan was felt in his bones, and joints seemed to work against him. All these years of fighting were not kind to him. He glanced down at the black, death magic on his arm. The magic had spread rapidly these last few days. His veins had started to turn black under his skin. "Awful sight, isn't it."

He stiffened at the voice, the older man turned around and glanced in the direction of the voice. "What are you doing here, Isamu?"

A grin spread across Isamu's face. "Nothing much, just asking a few questions. Isamu strode towards him. Daiki stood up and got into a defense position. There had been a time when they had trusted each other, but that was a long time ago. Isamu motioned for him to calm down. "Don't worry, old man. I just want to know about the new force."

_Does he mean Gray?_ Daiki glared at the Dark General. "What gives you the idea I would rat him out to the likes of you."

"Calm down, you're getting too old to fight me. Just tell me, will he put up a good fight."

Daiki glared at the other mage. The aura around the younger mage reeked of death. True, Isamu had a gift for sweet talking, but the scar below his eye only reminded the older mage of who the dark mage really was like. "I'm running out of patience," the older mage stated. "You never ask questions, why are you really here?"

Isamu sighed, "Orders from higher up. We can no longer wait for any of you to die on your own." The Dark General's eyes turned dark. "So I've come to speed things up." Before Daiki could think to defend himself Isamu was upon him. He felt a long blade from one of Isamu death spells penetrate his skin. Daiki began to cough up blood. The long blade was pulled from his stomach and everything became black.

"What a shame." Isamu murmured. "The world just lost a great mage, and no one will even mourn."

* * *

Gray made his way down a dirt path. It had been almost a week now since their "team" had formed. So far, they had been successful in their missions, but demon attacks have spread like wildfire. The two other mages had agreed that the increase of attacks had been too large for a coincidence. Zeref was making a move, a rather great one at that.

The ice mage rubbed his temples and let out a groan. The past few hectic days had allowed him little time to regain his strength, he was running on about three hours of sleep and was about to crash._ Not yet, you still got a job to do._ The mage shuffled his feet forward. He was alone at the moment, each mage having to go to a different demon attack. A growl of a Quietus Messenger sounded next to him. Maybe when this was done he could take a break.

Gray sent a wave of magical energy towards the beast. Another one swiped at his head, and was avoided. Moving swiftly Gray formed an iced sword and ended the job in one motion. The ice mage held his head in his hands, maybe he could take a rest now._ Gray, you there?_ Masaru's voice appeared in his head. Gray groaned in annoyance, the only thing that meant was another demon appeared. _Northern country, high class demon. Urgent._

Gray formed a portal and stepped through.

* * *

Natsu had his arms behind his head, walking lazily towards the meeting place of all the guilds. Erza walked in front of their group. Lucy and Happy walked besides him, with Wendy and Carla bring up the rear. It seemed odd without Gray's presence on such an important mission, but the dragon slayer had refused to say that out loud, not wanting the others to think he missed the ice mage. "The meeting building should be just ahead." Erza stated. A building came into view shortly afterwards.

A pink haired mage waved at the Fairy Tail members as they approached, Sherry, Natsu believed her name was. A rather annoyed Lyon stood beside her, "Where's Gray?" The ice mage asked, surprised by the missing mage.

"He's not accompanying us on this mission." Erza answered.

Lyon thought about her statement. "Maybe that's for the best."

Erza raised an eyebrow at the mage's tone. "Has the rest of the Light Team arrived?"

" 'Modified.' Light Team." Lyon spat.

"Modified?" Lucy asked.

"And improved." An ill willed voice said, coming from inside the meeting hall.

The members of Fairy Tail went wide eyed. "Nullpuding?!" Lucy yelled.

A wicked grin spread across the mage's face. "Surprised? I was sent in place of Blue Pegasus, a much better candidate, don't you think?"

Natsu balled his hands into fist. Why would the council send _that_ mage here. The dragon slayer had begun to reel his fist back to deliver a blow that would knock that grin of the other's face.

"Enough." Jura said, besides Lyon. "The sooner we complete this mission the sooner we don't have to put up with each other."

Natsu slowly put his fist down. He would make sure to keep a close eye on the Raven Tail mage.

* * *

A small girl stared in horror at the monster attacking her home village. She wasn't sure how it'd started. Everything had seemed so normal earlier. Then suddenly everywhere she looked homes were being destroyed and families torn apart. Tears streamed down her cheeks as another section of the town crumpled to dust.

Her fingers dug into the earth in frustration. She wasn't even sure anyone was still alive. A painfully scream came from her throat till it turned raw. The more she screamed the angrier she got. A circle appeared underneath her and glowed green. The land crumpled under her and she sent a wave of power towards the demon that ruined her life.

The demon turned towards the source of power it felt. It barely scratched the demon and he continued on his path of destruction. Tears rained down from her eyes as the demon moved away from her. Her vision became blurry and she dropped her head.

A loud thunder like sound came from the other side of town. She looked up in time to see a magic circle the size of the demon closed around it. Everything seemed to happen to fast after that. Through her blurry vision she tried to make out what was happening before her._ Did the demon just… freeze?_

The demon's movements became slow and then stopped altogether. Cracks appeared along its body and it shattered onto thousands of pieces._ Is that.. ice?_

Gray moved along the destroyed town. Memories of when he was eight came flooding back. His village had looked exactly like this after Deliora was done with it._ Dammit!_ He thought. _Zeref tricked us. Those damn minor demons were sent to distract us from the real threat._

His footsteps echoed throughout the blackened town. He was searching for any signs of life, but only managed to find the remains of victims. A lump caught in his throat at the sight. Gray had just about given up on searching when he felt a small magical aura nearby. "Hello, is there anyone there?" Gray called, running in the direction of the aura.

Gray arrived at a crater in the center of town. _This is where that power came from earlier._ Soft cries sounded from the crater. Sliding down the sides of he ran through the center of the cavity. His eyes searched for the source of the noise. His gaze fell on the small form of a child. Her hair covered her face and her head was hung low. Gray kneeled next to her. "Hey," he soothed, "are you okay?"_ Not the best question, but what else do you say to someone who just went through this._

The small girl turned her eyes up towards him. Tears ran down her cheeks and she shook from fright. Gray rubbed her back reassuringly. Without warning the girl flung her arms around his neck and sobbed into his chest. Gray rocked her back and forth, promising her that everything will be okay. _Zeref you bastard, you enjoy doing this, don't you._

* * *

**Another chapter done, feel free to review.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Do not own Fairy Tail. Enjoy the new chapter.**

* * *

The team's "headquarters," as Masaru called it, was a small cabin in a northern country, away from any type of civilization. At the moment, Gray sat on the mattress in one of the spare rooms, watching the sleeping figure of a young girl. Masaru watched him silently from the other side of the room. "It's not your fault, Gray. Stop thinking it is."

Gray sighed and hung his head. "Maybe if I hadn't taken so long with all the other missions I would have been there in time."

"No you wouldn't. Zeref sent so many demons out at once so we couldn't get to all of them." The female mage put her hand on his shoulder. "Get used to it. The hero can't be everywhere. Just one catastrophe at once."

Her words held little meaning to the despondent ice mage. Gray turned his gaze back to the sleeping form. "Do you think she has a family somewhere else?"

"You're asking me?" Gray expected as much of an answer. It didn't matter, most families live together in a single town in the north. It was the reason Gray had no living relatives after the Deliora attack when he was a child.

"Hey, Masaru. That demon… was it one that used death variation magic?" No reply came from the other mage. Slowly she extended her hand over the sleeping form. A small light shimmered and a black, magic circle appeared on the girl's arm. Gray sucked in a sharp breath. It was one thing seeing the spell on him, but it seeing it on someone else was like being struck with a sword.

Masaru waved her hand over the circle and restored the concealment spell. "Well that's that. A demon just made itself known, I'll be going now. Have fun." She turned to exit the room.

"Oi, what should I do?"

Masaru turned back and looked at him. "You brought her here, you take care of her." With that she turned around and left. Gray turned back to the small girl. He sat in thought. _She should be able to use pure magic now. But I think she already did earlier, though it was weak._ The ice mage held his head in his hands. If she wanted to learn he could probably manage to teach her a few open spells, but that was it.

Gray pushed himself from the bed and exited the room. He'd sensed another demon already, Zeref sure wasn't taking a break. He made his way outside of the cabin and into the snowy environment outside. He'll worry about everything later.

Takeshi sat in a tree limb, watching Gray walk away from the house. He witnessed the ice mage carry a small bundle in his arms earlier, but he now seemed empty handed. The teen sat in thought wondering about the ice mage._ Is he for real? Or is he playing at something?_

* * *

Erza sat at one of the tables in the meeting building. The verbal fights that constantly broke out between Natsu and Nullpuding were driving her insane. She rubbed her temples as she looked over the reports sent to them. She made a mark on a map where the mystery force appeared after each report. "This doesn't make sense." The scarlet haired stated. "None of the appearances form any patterns. It's all randomized."

Lucy, who was reading a report next to her, nodded in agreement. "There's been appearances in northern and eastern countries. Even western countries like Fiore have reports on them." The blonde looked up from the report and at the requip mage. "A majority of the reports state that a demon was spotted as well, along with traces of fights. Do you think whatever it is has some hidden agenda?"

Erza thought about her friend's words. "It's possible. Though whatever it is it has made no clear attempt at anything."

Lyon and Sherry walked into the meeting hall. "More reports." The pinkette announced. Erza groaned at the news.

"I wouldn't be so bummed about these." Lyon stated, handing her the forms. "A few _interesting_ spotting have occurred. Erza scanned over the report. Her eyes fell on a few lines on the entry.

_Mage spotted at location. Status: female, assumed eighteen years of age, deadly aura. Wields unknown magic. Dangerous._ Erza's eyes grew wide, she flipped to the next report. _Mage spotted. Status: male, assumed eighteen Powerful mage. Presumed, dangerous. _Erza read the last report_.Mage spotted: male, assumed fourteen years of age, powerful mage. Presumed dangerous._

"So what do you think?" Lyon asked.

Erza looked up at the ice mage. "I think we're dealing with a dark guild."

* * *

A small girl blinked groggily and looked about her. The room she was in was unfamiliar to her and she sat confused for a few moments. The events of the night came flooding back into her mind and she shut her eyes again. She slowly opened them hoping when she would be back home and the past events were just nightmares. The room hadn't changed, nor had the memories of the night before.

She slowly stepped out of bed and onto the icy, cold floor. She cautiously made her way out of the room and into a hallway._ Wasn't there someone there?_ The small girl recalled the memory of her kind savior. He had dark, raven hair and eyes full of concern. She silently wished to see him again, he was so nice to her.

A small clanking sound came from another section of the house she was on. She carefully made her way to the direction of the sound. She peeped around the corner of the wall into what appeared to be the kitchen. An older boy was rummaging through some cabinets, looking for food, she assumed. The boy, sensing her presence, turned towards her. The girl quickly hid behind the wall out of his sight. "Hey, what are you doing here?" The girl turned back to him, unsure of the boy. A look of irritation was on his face and she didn't know why. When she didn't answer that just seemed to annoy him further. "You're that lump thing Gray carried in last night, right?"

She didn't say anything. _Gray? Is that his name?_ The teen rolled his eyes, irked at the lack of answers he turned back around to the cabinets. "Well Lump, if you're not going to say anythi-"

"That's not my name."

The boy turned back around. "It speaks." He waited a few seconds for her to continue but nothing more came. Turning back around once more he pulled what she guessed was breakfast out of the cabinet. "Well Lump, are you hungry?" The girl wondered if he was trying to be polite._ Maybe he's not good with people?_

Somewhere in the house a door creaked open. The small girl turned towards the new sound. She could barely see the door opening that lead to the outside. Her small eyes widened as a raven haired figure walked in.

Gray opened the door that lead to there "base" of sorts. His body slighty ached from the long night, but the amount of attacks had certainly decreased. He could see the figure of Takeshi in the kitchen. "Morning," the ice mage greeted.

Takeshi looked slightly annoyed, but then again, he always did. "The lump's up." Gray wondered what he meant by that, but soon saw a much shorter figure next to the teen.

Gray moved towards the small girl. "And good morning to you." He smiled at the young girl. She looked up at him, curiosity written on her face. Gray kneeled down next to her. "So kiddo, what's your name?"

In a small voice she answered. "Aiko."

"Nice to meet you, Aiko. You hungry?" Gray stood back up and moved next to Takeshi, and began helping to make breakfast.

"Umm," Aiko began behind him, "thank you, for last night."

Gray smiled at the young girl. "Don't think anything of it. Now tell me, do you happen to have any family in another town?" Aiko said nothing to that, she only slowly shook her head. "I see, well… in that case you can stay with us if you want."

Aiko shuffled from foot to foot, unsure of what to make of the offer. Gray mentally smacked himself._ Why the hell did he say it that way? Who takes an offer like that from a complete stranger? It's just creepy._ He began to think of a way to rephrase his words._ Then again, he hadn't known Ur, yet he accepted her invitation. Hell he even asked her if he could._" You don't have to answer right away, you can think about it."

She nodded. "Umm, who are you?"

"I'm Gray, and that ray of sunshine is Takeshi." The young teen gave Gray a look that… let's just say if looks could kill he would be a serial killer. "So Aiko, how old are you?" Gray tried to remember back to when he was eight. Small talk was an easy way to stay calm at the time.

"Six." Gray flinched at that._ Geez, six years old and marked with a death spell._ "Are you a mage?"

"Sure am." He replied; scraping the eggs he was making onto three separate plates. "A better question is, are you?"

The girl seemed caught off guard by the question. "No." _So that force that came from her yesterday must have happened after she came in contact with the death spell. Guess she reached a small level of pure magic on accident._

"Would you like to be?"

* * *

Jura shuffled through the new reports. "A large demon appeared around here. No known survivors in the town it attacked." He stated, pointing on a map. "Same place where one of the unknown forces were reported."

"Do you think the dark guild we're looking for controls the demon." Natsu asked.

Jura shrugged. "It's possible. More reports are coming in with the 'guild,' so to speak, being associated with demons known to be controlled by Zeref."

"Do you think they're in an alliance with Zeref?" The blonde Celestial mage asked.

Erza shrugged. "It's a likely possibility. We're not even sure if this is a guild doing this. Though the possibility of them setting those demons loose is around one hundred percent."

Natsu tensed at that._ Those bastards. _His memories of what Gray had told him came back, how his family had been killed by Zeref's demons. _Who works with demons?!_

* * *

Gray stood in a battle stance outside of the base. He had been training for the past week with the other two mages, along with the mage in training. Attacks still occurred and he often found himself having to leave at a moment's notice to take care of the issue. The rest of the time he mostly trained with one of the other mages. Takeshi had seemed to challenge the ice mage every day to a fight. Their fights were short lived, as Gray usually beat the younger teen with little effort. He and Masaru spared a few times. Mostly he worked with Aiko, who had become sort of an "experiment" to Masaru. The young girl being the first of them who didn't know magic before learning pure magic. Aiko had become easily adapted to earth magic. Luckily, she was taking losing her family much better than Gray had when he was a child. She had even started to call him onii-chan, becoming so used to the ice mage. Though he could do without the chan. Gray had taught her a few open spells but she had only managed to learn one that allowed a mage to make a shield. Gray himself had greatly improved. Open spells came to him like second nature. The more he worked with them the more he was able to use magic other than ice. The magic aura he gave off had changed slightly also, it was more powerful as was his magic.

It wasn't until Masaru came back to base one day with a news article from a nearby town that he realized exactly what feeling his aura gave off.

Masaru slammed the newspaper onto the table on front of him. Gray read the headline.

_ Dark Guild On The Rise, Believed To Set Demons On Innocents_

Gray rose an eyebrow in question. "Dark guild?" Masaru nodded grimly. Gray scanned the article. _Best guilds in the western country of Fiore sent to capture dark mages. Fiore? _"So we're a dark guild now?"

"Apparently."

Gray rubbed his temples. "So, stay under the radar." He muttered.

Takeshi grabbed the paper from Gray's hands. "This could be fun." He said, catching everyone by surprise. "What? If they think they can take us let them try."

"But dark guilds are bad, right onii-chan?" Aiko asked, referring to Gray in what she had been for the past few days.

Gray nodded. "Besides, do we look like a guild to you?"

A devilish grin crossed the teens face. "Oh but we can."

His words began to dawn on the older mages. "Yes, because that looks like we're friendly." Masaru stated sarcastically.

"Oh c'mon. It's not that bad. Besides, who cares what people think about us? We know the truth."

Masaru shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "As much as I hate to agree with him… Takeshi's right. We need to have people be able to identify us otherwise some dark mage will claim to be us so he isn't exactly targeted."

Takeshi's grin widened. "It's a good idea. What do you think, Aiko?" In all honesty her exact answer didn't matter, but Gray had started to agree with the young girl lately.

"Umm… I guess we could."

Gray sighed in defeat. "I'm fine with it then." He gave a small surge of power and removed the concealment spell on Aiko and him (concealment turned out to be a concealment spell, as he had learned). The dark circle on her left arm became visible. Along with the now irregular one on Gray, as the death magic had spread and it now was clearly visible on his left arm. Takeshi and Masaru did the same, making it appear they all had a darker version of a guild mark. "But the condition is when we go to any public place we cover it up. Any normal person sees that and they'll think we're a threat." The other three mages nodded in agreement.

* * *

Erza rubbed her temples in frustration. This mission was taking way longer than she had hoped for. Since the public had found out they expected a guild was behind this the force had seemed to gone along with it. The mages assumed to be in it had been seen with a dark mark. Certainly this was becoming a messy case.

The worst part was the bickering that went on between the mages. About a month had passed on the case and they were quickly losing their patience with each other. Almost every time she turned around she had to break up a fight between Natsu and Nullpuding.

Jura came through the meeting hall doors, toting a new stack of reports. "Anything new?" Lucy asked the earth mage.

"For once that's a yes." He handed Erza a stack of reports. From the looks of things their theories were true. There was a total of four mages on the loose. Though their exact appearances were unsure their magic was what kept the interest. Erza scanned the new report.

"King of demons?" Lucy read over her shoulder.

Wendy shivered at that. "That sounds menacingly." She whispered in a small voice.

Erza nodded in agreement. She reached for the synopsis of the mages they had created and jotted the new information down. "From the looks of things the public has given names to the mages. The first mage, the young man with the darkest magical aura, was named the King of Demons. The second strongest, the young women, is now dubbed Fate's end. The younger boy is the Prince of Darkness. Lastly, the new one that we have little information on, the Demon Messenger. Probably because they've been spotted mostly with the man."

Natsu snorted at her words. "Really? King of Demons? Geez, why do people come up with such dumb names?"

* * *

Gray couldn't contain his laughter. Nor could anyone else. They sat around the newest paper from town. Amazing what names they give people nowadays. "Really? _King of Demons?_ Could they not think of anything better?" Takeshi laughed.

Gray smirked at the younger boy. "You're one to talk, my _prince."_ They laughed again at the boy's annoyed face.

"What are you laughing at? _Fate's End?_" Masaru made a face of disgust. Their laughter rang out in the dark night. Eventually Gray and the other older mage got up from their seats. They bid goodnight to the two younger mages they left the small cabin. As late as it was Gray still had jobs to take care of.

Gray moved into a stance to create a portal but was stopped before he could finish the spell. Masaru laid her hand on his shoulder. "You're going back tonight, right?"

Gray nodded. "I've been gone way too long. I don't need anyone to worry."

Masaru nodded in approval. "You know some of your guild mates a-"

Gray raised his hand to cut her off. "I know. They usually get called in for jobs like going after dark guilds. They don't know, and something tells me to keep it that way. Now, what did you _really_ want to talk about?"

Masaru moved her eyes up to his. "About Deliora…"


	11. Chapter 11

**I do not own Fairy Tail. Sorry that Gray isn't present that much in this chapter, but I needed to set everything up. Enjoy!**

* * *

Gray stumbled through the undergrowth, trying to keep steady. Images flooded his mind like nightmares. Recent news of what he just heard had come close to making him physically ill. His pulse was racing uncontrollably fast. His heart beat in his cheat like a hammer. Breaths came to him in harsh gasps.

His knees gave in and he found the ground rushing up to meet him. His dug his fingers into the dark ground. His knuckles turned white as his paled face. He had plan on going home tonight, but now…

_Deliora… How? I can't…_

He slowly pushed himself up and continued to stumble forward. _It just shouldn't happen. _Gray swallowed the limp in his throat and tried to push the thought far from his mind._ No, I just won't think like that._ He shuffled his feet forward some more.

_ Besides, it's not like I'll actually become Deliora…_

* * *

Lucy held the map in front of her. "It should be somewhere near here." She announced. The group of mages slowly made their way to their new meeting place. This one seemed to be closer to where the unknown forces appeared most frequently than the last.

"Aye, sir." Happy said next to her.

"I'm not a sir." Lucy complained to the feline.

"She's right," Carla said to the blue cat. "Say ma'am instead."

"I hope will finally get a fight!" Natsu pumped his fist in the air. "I'm tired of reading those boring reports."

"You haven't read them." Lucy muttered under her breath. The new meeting hall came into view. "Wow, it's like a real guild building."

Erza nodded in agreement. "Yet only people who know how to get here know its existence. Making it the perfect place for tracking the guild here without them knowing. I suggest we all search around here until we know the grounds, that way we have a better chance at outsmarting anyone."

"That's a wonderful idea." Sherry agreed.

Lyon nodded. "According to the reports, at last one of the unknown forces tends to appear around here once every few days. There's a good chance one could even turn up today."

"It's settled then." Erza stated. Their travel together through the grounds only lasted for so long. All the mages began to argue among themselves.

"Oi, what are you doing?" Natsu asked in an accusing tone towards Nullpuding.

"What does it look like, fairy. I'm sick of having to spend time with you trash. I'm setting traps to catch whatever keeps showing up so we don't have to try more than once."

"Traps?" Wendy asked. "Like runes?"

"Better," Nullpuding said in his gravelly voice. "something that I invented. It's like an animal trap. When they step in it…" Nullpuding picked a stick up to demonstrate and pushed it into the trap. "It attacks them." The mages watched in horror as teeth grew from the trap and encased the stick, splintering it to pieces. "The best art, it works on their own magic energy, meaning the more they try to escape it, the more it hurts.

Natsu clenced his fist in anger as Nullpuding put the trap down. "You're going to use _that_ on people?" The fire mage raged in fury. Fire appeared around his fist. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Natsu sent his fist towards the mage's face.

Nullpuding dodged to the side. "If you don't like it, find the force before the trap does."

Natsu's eyes flashed with hate. Abruptly, the fire mage turned around and walked away from the guild. "Where are you going?" Lucy called after him.

"Isn't that obvious? I'm going to find this damn mage before that coward's trap does."

* * *

Aiko sat in the kitchen with Takeshi. Masaru and onii-chan had yet to return, so Takeshi was _stuck_, as he put it, watching her. Takeshi was in the middle of teasing her when he froze suddenly. "Do you feel that?" He asked her.

"Feel what?" Takeshi said nothing. A look of concentration crossed his face. Aiko focused and tried to feel it too. "It feels mean," she said after a while.

Taleshi nodded. "Sudden spike in demon attacks all at one. Come on, we're going."

"Going where?"

"Too many attacks for Gray and Mace to handle at once. I'll send you to one attack, a minor one obviously. I'll go to another and send a portal near you when you're done."

"Umm…"

"What?!"

Aiko shuffled from her feet, "It's just... I've only ever gone with onii-chan to an attack site. Plus, he says I'm not ready yet."

The teen rolled his eyes. She was way too obedient. "Think of this way, you want to help Gray, right? This way you can make his life that much easier."

"Okay then."

"Good." She is so easy to convince. Takeshi formed a portal. "Now I'll leave a mental communication line up between us. When you're done I'll form a portal same place you arrived at. It'll only be open for a short time, so make sure you get through. Oh, real quick, lets cover your guild mark." Takeshi waved his hand over her arm and the magic circle faded away. A portal formed in front of her afterwards. Aiko stepped through to the other side.

She placed her foot on a soft patch of grass. The looked around her and tried to get a strong sense of where the demon was. Turning to around she followed the feeling. She felt something else too. _That feels like magic. Maybe there are mages here?_ Aiko brightened at the thought, other than the three ahe lived with she never meant another mage. Though Gray had told her a lot about his guild and his friends who were mages. _I think he said it was called Fairy Tail?_

Aiko turned slightly to the left, continuing to follow the feeling. _Should be around here somewhere…_ Aiko turned towards a snarling sound that appeared behind her. A demon stood a few yards away. She recognized it as one of the minor demons Gray had taken her to see. Though she had only watched him fight it.

Aiko slowly kneeled on the ground, getting into one of the fighting stances she learned. She posed with a hand in front of her for balance. The other slightly behind her, posed like she was about to run a race. The demon lunged at her, jaws snapping. The small girl quickly moves her hand up against the earth, sending a wave of magical energy as she did. A mass of earth came up and hit the creature squarely in its chest. "Sorry," she told the demon. She hated fighting, but Masaru told her demons didn't have souls so it doesn't matter a lot. The demon moved back up and lunged again. Aiko sent another piece of land at the creature and flung it back.

A small grin spread across her face as the demon shimmered and disappeared. "Yay!" She pumped her fist in the air in victory. Aiko turned around and walked back towards where she came. She actually had walked a bit of a ways. _Now was it this way… or maybe this way…_ The earth mage turned around a few times, realizing she was lost. _I think it was this way._

The small mage made her way through a small forest. _This doesn't look familiar, maybe I should turn around soon._ Aiko took a few more steps forward in case she remembered if it was this way.

Something sharp wound around her leg, cutting into her flesh. Without meaning to she unleashed a painfully scream.

Natsu's ears perked up at a scream. Lucy turned around to the direction it came from. "Do you thi-" The fire mage didn't stay around to hear her finish. He ran towards the the place he heard the scream come from._ Did that bastard actually catch someone?_

Aiko squirmed in pain. She tried prying the teeth of the trap off her leg, only to have to teeth grow and travel up her leg, causing a new wave of pain. Tears were welling in her eyes and blood dripped onto the ground. A cry escaped her lips.

The smell of blood rushed into the dragon slayer's nostrils. He heard a small whimper up ahead where one of the traps must have been set. Natsu pushed some tree breanches out of the way and made his way to where the trap lay. His eyes widened at the sight before him.

A small girl had the trap wound up and down her leg. Blood fell to the ground from the open wound into a small puddle. Natsu kneeled down next to her, trying to stop the bleeding until Wendy got there. The young girl looked at him in fright and tried scooting back. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you." If his words had any meaning it didn't show, the girl continued moving away from him.

"Natsu, where are you?"

"Over here!" He yelled back.

Lucy ran towards his voice. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. She dropped to her knees next to the girl, "Don't worry, we can fix that." She tried reassuringly.

New voices called after the two Fairy Tail mages. "Over here," Natsu called again. He looked back at the small, hurt, girl. Lucy was trying her best to calm her down. Though she still looked terrified.

The mages from Lamia Scale entered the scene, shortly followed by Erza and Happy. Natsu looked up at the new mage that enter the area. Nullpuding came closer to the mages. "So I've caught something." The dark mage said in a pleased voice.

"YOU CAUGHT A KID! YOU BASTARD!" Natsu's fist flamed up and he aimed at the mage. Nullpuding's smirk disappeared when Natsu's flames made contact with his face.

Nullpuding swung his arm out at the fire mage. "ENOUGH!" Jura's voice boomed. "This isn't the time for fighting, there's someone injured. NOW TAKE THAT DAMN TRAP OFF!"

"Who's hurt?" Wendy asked, coming closer to the mages. Her eyes widened when she saw the girl in pain. Nullpuding took his own sweet time walking over to the girl, than even slower, and rather roughly, removed the trap. Another cry came from the girl when he did so. Wendy quickly dropped to her knees and began her healing magic.

Aiko froze when the girl with long, blue hair started using magic on her leg. The first mage that had come was yelling at some guy with purple skin. A blonde women and a scarlet haired one kneeled next to her, trying to calm her down. _Did these guys set a trap like this for people? What mage would do that?_ A blue cat sobbed next to her, promising the girl named Wendy would make her better. _Is the cat talking? Like the one onii-chan told me about?_

Aiko looked up at the mage she first saw once more. A red mark on his arm caught her eye. _That's the same mark onii-chan has!_ She started realizing details then, he had used fire earlier. Is he _the _Natsu from onii-chan's stories. She looked at the other mages. _So the one in armor must be Erza. That leaves the blonde one to be Lucy._ Aiko looked down at the blue cat,_ and this is Happy._ A sudden realization dawned on her,_ no way they could set a trap for someone, they're Gray's friends, they have to be nice._

"Wendy, how's it coming?" Erza asked. Aiko looked over at Wendy. She was trying to heal her leg, but it barely made a difference. The words Gray told her in her training came back the her,_ the thing about pure magic, the more you use it, the less affect regular magic has on you._ Aiko focused on the magic, she remembered him saying afterwards she can let it affect her if she wanted to.

Wendy focused on the girl in front of her. Her magic seemed useless the wound. Relief washed over her when suddenly her magic started working again. "Do you live around here?" Lucy asked the small girl.

"Umm…" Aiko mumbled, not sure how to answer that. She thought it over, didn't Takeshi say he'll leave a mental link between them? _Takeshi! _She called mentally. _Takeshi!_

_ What?_

_ There's a problem._

_ What problem?_

_ One big enough to make you both regret this._ Masaru's voice rang out in their minds. _For now, go along with it, Aiko. All those mages around you were sent to look for us. Right now be our eyes and ears. More importantly, most of them are Gray's family, there's a good chance that they're in danger, keep watch over them._

_ But what do I say?_

_ Make it up?_ With that their conversation was cut off. The blonde mage looked at her in concern. "Do you live here? We thought this area was free of people."

"Well, umm…" Aiko started thinking of what she could say. "I live here temporarily, just until my onii-chan comes home." It wasn't a _complete _lie.

"So you live here alone?" The cat, Happy, asked in surprise.

"At the moment."

"Absurd," the scarlet declared, Aiko panicked at the thought of being found out so easily. "If you have no one to live with you can stay with us until you do. Besides, we are obliged to help you now."

"There," Wendy said, tired by using so much magic power. "It's not perfect, but it can't be healed all at once."

"Thank you." Aiko said to the blue haired girl.

"Wendy, you shouldn't over do it." A white cat told the healing mage.

Aiko slowly got to her feet, only to fall back down. Erza caught her before she hit the ground. "Don't force yourself, take your time, you're still injured."

"I'm fine though, really." She replied, getting backup. She wobbled a bit but remained standing. One thing she learned from training with the other three pure magic mages, it was how to be strong. Granted pure magic users tend to heal themselves without them preforming healing spells.

Natsu looked at the young girl getting up._ Tough kid,_ he thought. She was still weak though and only made it a few steps. "No need for that." Natsu told her. He picked her up gently and moved her onto his back, giving her a piggyback ride weather she liked it or not. "So kid, got a name?"

"Aiko."

"Nice to meet you Aiko." He and the other mages made their introductions and made their way back to the new meeting building. _Sweet kid, but why would she be left alone?_

Aiko listened to the mages introduce themselves. The mages she didn't recognize from Gray's stories were nice too, except the purple one, who slightly scared her. She remembered one of the Lamia Scale mages from one of onii-chan's stories whose name was Lyon, the guy Gray learned ice mage with._ I wonder if he's as good as Gray?_ Aiko thought about it some more._ Nah, no one's better than onii-chan._

* * *

Nullpuding stayed a bit aways from the other mages. He watched as they entered the meeting building, making sure they didn't see him, he traveled another direction. He hadn't mentioned it, but those traps were magic specific when it came to mages. She had to be one of the mages he was looking for.

The violet mage moved towards a figure waiting for him. "One of them is here." Nullpuding told the figure. "Now where's my part of the deal."

The figure looked at him. "Who makes a deal with a dark mage." The figure stated. In a flash the figure was in front of the Raven Tail. A dark, magic blade was pushed through the stomach of the purple mage. The mage's eyes rolled back into his head and he took his last breath.

Isamu sighed in annoyance, it wasn't the mage he wanted, but this was almost too perfect. He had the perfect live bait. Everyone from his new comrades, old senpai, and most importantly, his guild mates. _He'll come for sure._


	12. Chapter 12

**I do not own Fairy Tail. Enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Gray trudged back to the base. The sudden increase in demon attacks was not easy on him. Dark circles outlined his eyes while his worn out body threatened to collapse. A splintering headache had formed in the back of his mind. He groaned when he sensed another demon appeared. _Does Zeref ever take a break?_

Gray lazily formed a portal to travel through. A pack of minor demons were causing a disturbance in an otherwise peaceful area. One of the demons spotted the ice mage and bounded towards him. Gray didn't even blink. A stalagmite of ice shot up from the ground, taking care of the beast. Another leapt at his throat. The ice mage sighed in annoyance. Ice plowed into the side of the demon.

He rubbed his forehead. His headache was getting worse by the second. It began to feel like someone was stabbing his brain repeatedly. A third demon jumped at him and Gray didn't even look up. A black light encased the demon that had jumped. The creature screamed in pain and the light swallowed it up. Gray glanced at where the demon had just been.

_Did I just do that!?_

Gray dropped his head into his hands. He clenched his skull, his knuckles turned white from tension. _What the hell was happening to him!?_ He fell to his knees in panic. _Is it true, then? Is he becoming like Deliora?_

* * *

Aiko swung her legs back and forth. Wendy was talking to her about their mission after she had asked. She figured if she was going to spy for Masaru, she had to pretend she didn't know anything. The blue haired mage chatted with her and answered her questions. "So have you found anyone yet?" Aiko asked.

"Unfortunately, no." Erza said, joining in on their conversation. "But we have a feeling one will make themself known around here at any time."

"So you're going to fight them afterwards?"

"If they don't come peacefully we will."

"AND WE'LL WIN!" Natsu yelled. "No one's going to beat a Fairy Tail mage in a fight!" Aiko smiled at the fire mage, he was exactly as onii-chan had described, enthusiastic and cheerful all the time. A thought occurred just then._ If a Fairy Tail mage never loses, what happens if their opponent is another Fairy Tail mage?_

"Oh, Aiko," Lucy said, interrupting her thought, "why exactly were you in the woods? You said you're waiting for your brother to come home, but we didn't see any houses around here."

Aiko replied sweetly, "Well, we don't exactly have a home. We travel a lot and just stay where ever."

"Do you not have any other family to stay with?" Wendy asked.

Aiko shook her head. "We don't have any parents. Just each other but onii-chan has to go on jobs all the time." None of this was a _complete_ lie. Some of the female mages, and Happy, teared up at that. For a moment Aiko wondered if she had said something wrong.

Happy clenched her arm and sobbed. "You're so brave." He cried. Aiko patted the cat's head.

"Don't cry, Happy. As long as someone cares about you that's plenty." That somehow made the feline sob even more.

"Honestly, don't be so overly emotional." Carla scolded the he cat.

"Well whoever your brother is, he doesn't sound that bad." Lyon commented.

"Unlike these scum." Jura announced, coming through the doors with stacks of paper. "More sightings, and the one seems to be getting more and more violent.

Natsu pounded his fist into his other palm. "Alright! Let's catch these bastards!" Lucy scolded the fire mage for using language in front of a little kid. Of course, she had heard much worse from Takeshi, but she didn't say something. Natsu, realizing why he was being scolded began to stutter slightly. "I m-mean a-ah, we're going to catch the bad guys!" Lucy rolled her eyes, could he really not think of something better to say? "Just you watch kid. We'll show you the power of a Fairy Tail mage!"

* * *

Gray walked up to the front door of the base. He covered his dark mark slightly before entering. The mark had spread up and down his left arm and was starting to twine around his throat. It was gruesome and gave off an impression he wished it not had.

Turning the handle he stepped into the dimly lighted cabin. "Oi, anyone home?" He called. No response came. He had expected Masaru to be out. But Takeshi and Aiko not being here surprised him. _He probably dragged her off somewhere._ Gray moved into what was used as his room and collapsed on the bed. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the calming quiet. Before he knew it he had drifted off into a dream.

Erza waved at the ice mage, one of her rare smiles on her face. Gray waved back. Lucy stood next to her, smiling. Even Natsu was there, one of his friendly smirks was showing on his face. Gray moved towards them. Suddenly the scene shifted and Erza was in front of him screaming. Something seemed to pull her into the ground and she was unable to defend herself. Gray tried running towards her, but she just got further away from him. Lucy's scream echoed out behind him. He turned just in time to see her disappear in a blinding light. "BASTARD!" Gray turned towards Natsu's voice.

Natsu was on his knees, trying to fight someone in front of him. His attempts were useless as the figure in front of the dragon slayer sent a punch at him. Death magic exploded on the fire mage when the fist made contact. Gray heard himself scream his friend's name.

The figure straightened and turned towards the ice mage. Gray froze in terror as he recognized the face of the man who just finished off Natsu. Gray stared back into another pair of dark blue eyes. There was no mistaking it. Everything thing was exact. From the scar on his forehead to the raven hair. The only difference being the other Gray seemed to be pure hate and menace.

Gray gazed back at himself in terror. The other Gray took a step towards him. "Beautiful, isn't it." Gray was unable to move. "Just think, we have so much potential. All the mayhem we can create. All the lives we can destroy. It truly is a lovely thing."

Gray managed to choke out a question. "Wh- who are you?"

The other Gray grinned. "I'm the part of you that's going to matter."

Gray sat up. What had begun as a pleasant dream had turned into his worst nightmare. He gripped his head in his hands. He had broken out in a cold sweat, his body visibly shaking._ Did he just… did I just… to my friends?_

* * *

Natsu slumped back into the meeting hall. A faint trace of a dark force had appeared earlier near the area. Though no one was around when he went searching. All traces had seemed to disappear along with the force, leaving no trail for him to sniff out. The fire mage sighed in defeat. _How am I supposed to catch someone who leaves nothing behind?_

A few members of the light team had already turned in for the night, leaving only Lucy, Erza, and Lyon awake. Lucy glanced up at him as he entered. "No luck?" Natsu shook his head.

"There's nothing to go off on. It's like they came out of nowhere."

"That certainly makes things difficult." Erza commented. "We can't track them, we've been doing that."

Lyon nodded in agreement. "So there's no other choice then to wait for them to show up."

"Except there's no reason for them to." Lucy replied. "If anything, there's reason not to. There's no way they haven't heard we were sent after them. They'll be on guard."

"Unless they want to challenge us!" Natsu argued. "Then they'll have to show up."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Natsu, if they wanted a fight, don't you think they would have come by now."

Natsu's face fell. "I guess so." He muttered under his breath.

"I wonder how string they are." Lyon mused. The Fairy Tail mages stared at the ice mage. "What? We know they're powerful, but that's it. We don't even know the exact magic they use."

Erza nodded. "Though the possibility that they work for Zeref is growing. It's possible that they use magic lost in time, like other workers of the Dark Mage."

Aiko wrapped her arms around herself, pretending to be asleep as she listened in on the mage's conversation._ Do they really think we would work for Zeref. It's just magic, it's just been to long since anyone has used it._ Aiko listened to the rest of their conversation. Finally the mages left, heading to bed.

* * *

Masaru walked into the small cabin known as their base. She strolled over to where Takeshi sat and backhanded him. "OW! What was that for!?"

"For letting a little kid challenge a demon."

"So what? She was fine."

"You're lucky for that. It's a good thing how everything worked out the way it did. We've got eyes and ears now, but don't think you're off the hook."

"Off the hook for what?" Gray inquired, walking into the room.

Takeshi paled. _Shit, if he knew I sent Aiko off…_ "Uh… nothing important."

Gray raised an eyebrow at his tone. "Whatever you say." The ice mage glanced around, noticing the absence of the youngest mage. "Where's Aiko?"

"Nowhere." Takeshi answered, hurriedly.

"Then why are you nervous?"

Masaru rolled her eyes. "The genius here sent her off."

"WHAT?" Gray grabbed the younger boy by his collar. "What did you do!?"

"Nothing, she just went on a short mission."

"By herself?" Gray dropped the younger bot back down and let out a groan. "Where did she go?"

"If we tell you, will you go there?" The ice mage turned towards Masaru.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the kid is doing us a huge favor. After Aiko beat the demon she found those the mages that are tracking us. She's going to be our little spy. So help me, if you mess this up you are a dead man."

Gray processed what she just said. If the kid was with Natsu and the others he had nothing to worry about, except maybe her being corrupt. "Fine, I'll leave her there."

"Nice to know you understand."

* * *

Lucy poured over the reports. Wendy sat beside her, doing the same. "I give up." Lucy announced. "There is no way we'll find these guys by looking at reports. We need a way to lure them here."

"What do you mean?" Wendy asked, nervously.

"I'm not sure. But there has to be a reason they keep appearing at haphazard locations. If we can just figure out why we can get them to appear here. The question is, why do they show up."

Carla shook her head. "There is no reason, they just show up."

"But there has to be, otherwise they're accomplishing nothing."

"I have to agree." Erza stated. "What the reason is, that's what we want to look for."

_I wonder if they'll be able to figure it out._ Aiko wondered. A shiver ran down her spine. A sudden feeling of dread washed over her. _It's not a demon. What is it?_

* * *

Isamu sat outside the guild. _This could be fun. I wonder how far the mages will come before I end everything. _A wicked grin spread across his face._ How I hope I see them fight their friend. That would be a sight. Then again, he may not make it to then. _

Isamu relaxed at the thought._ Gray is a fool. All the power of one of Zeref's greatest demons is at his fingertips. Yet he refuses to take control._


	13. Chapter 13

**I do not own Fairy Tail. Enjoy, feel free to comment.**

* * *

Isamu looked down at the kneeling figures in front of him. "You understand the orders?"

His first in command nodded. "Yes sir, we attack at your signal."

"Very good, just make sure the distractions are taken care of. Be sure to leave the raven haired one alone, I look forward to sparring with him." The three figures at kneeled rose and left the room._ That should be enough, if my top three men cannot do this simple task, they do not deserve to work for Zeref._

* * *

Gray dodged to the side into a pile of snow. Without a moment's hesitation he swiftly moved back to his feet and sent a wave of icicles at the two fellow pure magic mages. Gray's muscles rippled under his shirt as he dodged again. No demon attacks had occurred recently, leaving some "free" time for the mages. If the two boys had been hoping for a moment of rest that dream was long gone. At the time, it was a three way battle, to_ improve_ their fighting skills. The ice mage was beginning to think it wasn't necessarily for his exact benefit. Masaru and Takeshi had teamed up against him to try to take him down.

A slice of wind came at him from behind, almost cutting into Gray's skin. The ice mage moved into another stance, putting a fist on an open palm. Sending his hands away from himself, an ice tower formed on command, encasing Takeshi before he could move. Gray was sent flying sideways from a blast from Masaru. Gritting his teeth he formed chains of ice that wrapped around the girl's legs, pulling her down. "Not bad, ice boy."

Takeshi broke his way out of his ice prison and joined he two older mages below. "Oh please, you're just lucky I went easy on you."

Gray rolled his eyes at the younger male. "Sure, that's why you were sent flying half way through this." A sudden feeling of dread washed over him. Gray turned towards the direction he felt it come from.

The younger boy started to argue but was cut off by Masaru. "Gray, what's wrong?"

"Hmm," The ice mage had become completely still, waiting to for the feeling to become clearer. "Do you feel that?"

"Feel what?"

The feeling slowly disappeared. _That wasn't a demon…_ "Nothing."

* * *

"I GOT IT!" Lucy announced, a grin was spreading across her face in triumph. "I've figured it out!"

"What is it?" Erza inquired.

"More reports are showing that they appear along with demons, what if they're capturing demons?"

The mages pondered this for a moment. "It's possible..." Lyon began, "not all demons are with Zeref, they could be capturing demons for the Dark Mage."

Erza nodded in agreement. "It's the only lead we have. It would also match the reports."

"So all we need to do is get a demon." Natsu concluded, happiness clear in his tone.

The mages sighed at his idea. "It's not that simple." Lucy stated, "Demons are hard to come by, even harder to control. So getting one here to lure the guild would be near impossible."

_Demons are hard to come by? _Aiko thought. _Must not be a lot of attacks in Fiore._

"Lucky for us, the number of demon sightings around here, are slightly higher than other areas. We wait here until a demon shows up. Then when a mage appears, we strike." Erza's tone seemed somewhat devilish. Wendy gulped. Erza sure was scary when she was determined.

"Question," Aiko waved her hand in the air to get the attention of some of the mages. "What if they don't fight you?"

A few mages seemed to think this over. "I'll guess it'll be a peaceful surrender." Lucy answered.

"What if they don't surrender?"

"Then we'll fight them!" Natsu exclaimed. The older mages groaned at that.

"Natsu," Happy started, "I don't think you're thinking this through."

"Who says I don't think!"

"That wasn't what I said." Happy muttered.

"Anyways," Erza cut the fire mage off before he could continue. "We have to stop the mages somehow, if it does come to fighting we have no choice. Aiko nodded, accepting this answer._ They wouldn't fight onii-chan. Would they?_

* * *

Gray sat back, trying to enjoy a moment of calmness. Trying being the key word here. The feeling he had sensed earlier had appeared on and off again, though he was unable to determine what it was. The ice mage sighed in annoyance. Whatever this feeling was, it was eating at him.

He raised his arm up to examine it in the pale moon light. If he thought the affect of the death magic was bad before, it was nothing compared to now. Every vein on his left side was visibly black under his skin. Even his face was starting to show signs of the magic. The small veins on his left eye had also turned black, outlining his pupil. To make matter worse, the words Masaru told him still nagged at his mind.

_Remember how I said pure magic was the connection to the ancestor of magic?_

_A nod from the ice mage._

_And how being attacked by one of Zeref's demons like Deliora unlocked your potential to reach it._

_Another nod._

_Thing is, magic like dragon and god slayer magic isn't the only type of magic where you take on the traits of whatever your magic came from. You should have died before this became an issue, but you've progressed to fast._

_Get to the point already._

_It's the same with demons. When Deliora cast that death magic on you, he gave you the ability to use the exact same magic as hedid. Meaning you carry Deliora's magic inside of you._

Gray rubbed his forehead. That conversation was not one he wanted to have. So that was why there was always a dark thought in the back of his mind. Though he can't say he wanted to use Deliora's magic, it's not like he had a choice.

The magic he remembered Deliora using was felt every time he used his own magic. The demon's magic had begun to become a part of him, merging into his own magic. The very thought of it almost made him sick. The magic Ur had thought him being used along with the demon's magic that she gave her life to stop. It was like a never ending cycle. Every time he thought he was done with what Deliora caused, something new happened.

Gray out his arm back down. Thoughts were clouding his mind again. He closed his eyes to try to escape reality for a few moments. Only to be snapped back when the dream he had earlier came back. _I hope nothing happens to them._ He thought._ Not like I would let anything happen._

* * *

"How 'bout this," Natsu started, "we use Lucy as bait. Then a demon attacks her and we just capture it when it does."

"YOU ARE NOT USING ME AS BAIT!"

Carla sighed, "Honestly, have some manners." She scolded.

"I agree with Carla." Happy admitted, trying to get the she cat's approval.

"I agree, that wouldn't even work." Lyon added.

Natsu astood, thinking of what else they could do. "What about Lucy's sex appeal as bait!"

"EXCUE ME!"

"That definitely won't work." Happy stated, losing all approval from Carla that he had.

"WHAT ARE YOU IMPLYING CAT!"

"No, we have to use something more appealing to a demon." Erza assured the cat.

"Did she just agree with Happy?" Lucy mused.

"Maybe we can use whatever demons eat?" Wendy suggested, though she wasn't looking forward to seeing a demon.

"We can use one of my fish." Happy offered.

"That wouldn't work either." Lucy told the blue cat.

Aiko watched the mages from Fairy Tail and Blue Pegasus try to figure a way out of their current quandary. She thought over what the mages said._ I don't think fish would work either…_

"Demons usually attack when they can cause a lot of destruction." Lyon began. "Mostly where they can find magic to feed off of, just this many mages being here should call one here eventually."

"Then why don't demons attack guilds?" Aiko asked the ice mage.

"Demons tend to avoid where too many people are present, unless it's a powerful demon. That way there's less of a chance of being slain."

"Which somewhat narrows down the possibility of one showing here." Erza groaned. The requip mage was starting to run out of ideas.

"Then we have no other choice but till wait till one appears close enough for us to capture it." Jura stated.

Natsu seemed depressed at the thought. "If you wanna be boring…"

A sudden feeling of dread washed over Aiko. The same one that she felt earlier._ What is that?_

"Oh, Aiko, are you okay?" Wendy asked, noticing the small girl's sudden change in mood.

"Hmm," Aiko glanced up at the dragon slayer, "Oh, I'm fine. Just thinking." _Now what is this feeling…_

* * *

Takeshi moved into an upright position, poised for battle. _No, this feeling isn't around here. It's somewhere else…_ He focused on the sense. _It feels like it's coming from the same place Aiko is. Feels like death._

The demon he had been fighting growled at him. He sighed in vexation. _I'll be there in a second, Aiko._

* * *

Aiko stood up suddenly, startling Wendy who sat next to her. "What's wrong?" Wendy asked her.

"Do you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Happy asked.

Aiko focused on the aura that kept appearing around the meeting hall. This time sensing its attention. She paled at the thought. _It's not a demon. It's worse…_

"Aiko?" Happy looked worried. Masaru's words echoed through her mind. _Keep watch over them._ Aiko rushed outside the meeting building and into the small clearing in front of the building. _It's going to hurt them…_

"Aiko?" Natsu yelled after her, confused by her sudden action. The fire mage ran out after her, followed by the other mages from the guilds._ What's gotten into her?_ He thought.

Isamu's third in command watched as the youngest of the pure magic mages came out of the building._ This isn't going to take long._ The dark mage poised his self, readying to attack the mage.

"Oi, Aiko." Natsu called after her.

She barely heard him. _Where's it coming from…_

Natsu began to trot towards the small girl. "You okay?"

Aiko turned towards the direction she felt the dark aura come from. Aiko quickly turned back towards Natsu. "Get out of here!" She yelled.

"Huh?" Natsu asked, confused.

He felt the air around him tremble before a beam of light came towards the spot between where he had stood and Aiko stood. The sound of explosives went off and the force sent the fire mage flying back._ What the hell was that?!_

The mages from Fairy Tail and Lamia Scale tensed when they saw another blast come towards them. Each mage moved into a defensive stance. Natsu moved back to his feet, fists flaming._ Who dares attack Fairy Tail?!_

A beam of power came blasting towards the mages. This time large enough to take out every mage at once. Natsu moved into a defensive stance, ready to take on the power from the attack.

A blinding light flashed before the mages before the magic hit them. When the dust that had been risen up cleared it revealed a magic circle big enough to shield the mages. Natsu looked past the shield to see Aiko standing on the other side. One hand on the ground, the other forming the shield. _She's a mage?_

Aiko stared at the man before her. He had the mark of one of Zeref's mages on his arm._ So he's a bad guy…_ In a voice that sounded way more confident than she did she asked. "Who are you?"

The man smiled wickedly. He moved his arm up and another blast of light was sent in her direction. Aiko dodged to the side, missing getting hit by an inch. "I see you formed a strong shield there. One that doesn't break till the caster lets it, hmm." Aiko didn't answer. Her attacker sighed in annoyance. "I'll just deal with those mages later." She dodged again as another beam of light came rushing towards her. "Don't think because you've had a little training you're a match for me."

"OI! YOU! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING" Natsu yelled at the newcomer.

"I'll make you a deal." The stranger began, talking to Aiko. "You tell me where the other new pure magic mage is, I'll let these mages go." He offered, gesturing towards the Fairy Tail and Lamia Scale mages stood.

"I don't make deals that hurt family." Aiko glared at the dark mage. She put her hand on the ground, sending some of her magic into the earth. A dark green glow surrounded her and magic radiated from her small form.

"What the-" Natsu watched in confusion as the earth seemed to come alive and move towards the dark mage.

"It can't be." Jura gasped.

"What?" Lucy asked.

"This earth magic. It's supposed to only be a legend. Magic forgotten in the ages."

Erza's eyes widened as the form Aiko came back into view. "It- it can't be!"

The mages followed her line of slight. They saw a black circle visible on Aiko's arm that hadn't been there earlier. "That mark. It's the same as the dark guild." Lucy gasped.

* * *

**Thanks for reading this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.**

**To the question that asked why I used Japanese names, there's no real answer. But I did use those specific names because of the meanings, though it probably isn't common knowledge what they mean.**


	14. Chapter 14

**I do not own Fairy Tail. Enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Lucy had her hand over her mouth, watching in terror as she watched the sweet little girl she had just met fight for her life."But- it doesn't make any sense. How can she be in a dark guild?"

"Something's not right here." Lucy looked over at Natsu. He had one of his dark looks on his face that he got when he was angry.

"Nat-" Lucy stiffened at the sound of a growl come from behind her. Spinning around she saw a creature from a nightmare. It was a mixture of a snake with a wild dog. "What is that?!"

Aiko turned back towards the Fairy Tail and Lamia Scale mages at the sound of a scream. A demon had come at the mages from behind. She moved her arm down in a swift motion, sending a wave of magic to break the shield she had made. Pushing her hand against the earth she sent the ground at the beast.

Something collided with her side. Aiko slammed against the ground from the force. "You let your guard down." She turned back to the dark mage. She moved her arms back into position to control the ground. "None of that." Another blast hit her, this time the full force sent her flying. She pushed herself onto her knees. She looked up to see the dark mage begin to form another attack. A flash of pink came across her vision.

Natsu sent his fist into the dark mage's stomach. He was going by his usual motto, _act now, ask questions later. _He sent his knee into the mage's throat. He heard him gag for air as Natsu hit him again, fist flaming. "Bastard!"

The third in command quickly recovered. "You're useless. You can't answer what the Lord wants to know."

"THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN!" Natsu dodged one of the dark mage's attacks, only to be hit with another.

"NATSU!" Aiko watched in horror as the fire mage was thrown to the side.

"Now," the dark mage turned towards her, "tell me where he is." Aiko shakily moved in to another fighting position. Her legs buckled under her and she fell back down. The dark mage strode over to her and yanked her up by her neck. His fingers closed around her throat and she started gasping for air. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the Fairy Tail and Lamia Scale mages fighting a pack of demons that had just made their presence known._ They're not supposed to get hurt._

The grip around her throat tightened. "Where's my answer." She tried to focus on the now blurry mage. Her vision was turning black and her head throbbed. _Onii-chan…help._

_Do I work instead?_

Aiko widened her eyes at the sound of a familiar voice. Wind sliced between her and the dark mage. The dark mage screamed in pain from his now cut, bleeding hand. His grip on her loosened and she fell to the ground. Another force of air sent the dark mage flying away from her.

Natsu pushed himself up in time to see the dark mage flying across the clearing. He turned back to where he last saw Aiko struggling. A boy a few year younger than him stood next to her. _Is he the one that sent that guy flying?_ Natsu startedmoving towards the younger mages. "Well done." The dragon slayer turned towards the new voice. Another mage stood where the first had appeared. "I see pure mages are no small fret. Then again, no mage of Zeref's is either." _There's another one?! Where are these guys coming from!_

Takeshi glared at the other mage. A little ways off he saw the mage from earlier get back up and start making his way back towards them._ Isamu's tugs, huh. What the hell do they want?_

"Oi, Aiko, stand up. We don't lose to scum like this, remember."

Aiko looked at the other pure magic mage. He had one of his scary, determined looks on his face. She moved to her feet, "Takeshi… Who are these guys?"

"That bastard Isamu's cutthroats." He turned back towards the small girl. "Don't disgrace the title."

Aiko nodded. If pure magic mages were strong, so was she.

Natsu watched in shock. _Are those kids seriously going to fight Zeref's mages?_ "NATSU!"

The dragon slayer turned to the sound of Lucy's voice. Countless demons were attacking the guild members, tearing, slashing, and biting. _Where are all these demons coming from?!_ The dragon slayer flamed his fist as he moved towards the pack of demons. Even Erza seemed to be having difficulty at the chaotic affair.

Takeshi matched his opponent's every move, caught in a never ending violent dance between magic. _He's not a pure magic mage, but he's no weakling._ He felt the dark mage's fist collide in his stomach and he fell back. _But if he's here, where's Isamu?_

"Focus, you little piece of shit!"

Takeshi turned towards the sound of Masaru's voice, just in time to see her clobber the dark mage. "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!"

Masaru ignored the younger mage's shouts. She ducked as new mage sent a blast of magic at her._ So Isamu has his three best on us. _She sidestepped the counter attack from the mage she just hit. Rounding behind him she kicked him into an unexpected flight, crashing into the mage attacking Aiko. "You two deal with the demons. I'll handle this."

Wendy moved to avoid the blow from an attacking demon. Cuts ran up and down her arms from the fighting and she felt her magic slowly disappearing. A quick glance around showed her comrades weren't doing any better._ I have to keep fighting for the guild. _She panted and looked at an oncoming demon. "Roar of th-"

She blinked in surprise. A arc of wind slashed across the demon's body. _Was that… sky magic._ She watched in awe as another slice of wind cut across five more demons at one. _It's like wind and sky magic. But different, even Chelia's magic wasn't like this._ She turned towards the source of the powerful magic. A boy a few years older than her stood, forming another slice of wind. Her eyes widened once more when they fell on the mark present on his arm. _He's a dark mage too?_

Erza glanced at the two mages that had joined the fight. Aiko and another boy with the same guild mark were making a dent in the number of demons. _Interesting, dark mages that slay demons._ She watched the younger mages them stood a third mage with the guild mark on their arms, fighting the dark mages that seemed to be with Zeref._ So if they're against Zeref, how do they have that magic? It shouldn't even exist._

Lyon moved his back against Sherry's, keeping offense while giving the other defense. Out of the corner of his eye he watched the new mage fight Zeref's lackeys._ Her magic is more developed. The last time I've felt magic like this it was when Gray went after Deliora._

Masaru sent the first in command backwards, rounding back she hit the second in command. "Just tell us where he is and we'll end this."

Masaru snorted. "If you're talking about the ice block he's a little busy fighting one of your damn demons at the moment." She sent a blast of magic into the third in command's chest. She ducked as the first in command sent a slice of killing magic at her.

"Oh, I think he'll come. Especially if his comrades are in danger."

The ground started shaking uncontrollably. A magic circle appeared in the sky above the fighting mage's heads._ Dammit! That's a transport portal. What hellish demon are they s3nding now?!_

Natsu looked up at the magic circle that had appeared out of nowhere. He froze as a demon larger than that resembled the size of a tower step out of it._ What type of magic is this?!_ A serpent slithered out of the magic circle. Sweeping its head its slits of eyes narrowed on the group of mages.

"What is that?" Lucy's voice quivered. It was like a creature from her worst nightmare.

"It's a B class demon." Lucy turned to the unfamiliar voice. The young teen boy from she saw earlier stood next to her. Glaring at the demon in front of them."

"B cla-"

"The teen turned around suddenly, looking at Aiko. "Don't just stand there. We're not here to watch these mages get hurt."

Lucy watched astonished as the small girl nodded and moved towards the demon._ Are they crazy? They're just kids._

Natsu's fist collided in the side of the demon. The teen boy and Aiko fought side by side against the serpent. "Roar of the… FIRE DRAGON!" Natsu bellowed a stream of fire magic at the serpent. _Dammit, why isn't it taking damage._

"Oi, Aiko." The earth mage clanked up at the sound of Takeshi's voice. "Remember what a unison raid is?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Think we need to pull one off."

Aiko's eyes widened in surprise. "But Mace said not too, that it would be too much magic released at once."

"Does it look like we have a choice here."

Aiko slightly, reluctantly took Takeshi's outstretched hand. In unison the merged their magic. "Goddess of earth," "God of the sky," "Gaea ," "Jove, UNISON RAID!"

Natsu felt the shy and earth tremble. A flash of blinding gold light seemed to swallow everything whole. The serpent hissed in pain and withered. "What is this?"

Takeshi collapsed onto his knees. "Aiko, you okay?" he panted.

"Uhh,"

"I'll take that as a maybe." The small girl seemed to be on the verge of passing out. _Can't blame her, I'm completely out of magic._ He stiffened at the sound of clapping.

"Very well done."

Masaru glared at the newcomer. "What are you doing here, Isamu?"

"Isn't that obvious? I'm getting the attention of the new power on the block."

Natsu turned towards the sound of the new voice. _Where do these guys keep coming from?!_

Something was off about this guy. All the remaining demons had stood still at his arrival. "I can't say these mages are pathetic for regular mages. But they're not much" Natsu felt his blood boil._ How dare he insult Fairy Tail._ His fist flamed up and he started moving towards him. The new dark mage turned towards the dragon slayer. "You're not worth fighting, though you are the perfect bait."

If Natsu thought the earth trembled before it was nothing compared to now. A black magic circle appeared around the dark mage. Magic moved in all directions and destroyed everything in its path.

Natsu fell to his knees from the force. It took all his effort to keep his eyes on the dark mage. "Basta-"

Natsu was cut off as the force of magic overwhelmed him. It was suffocating, he felt his own magic being drained from his body._ What type of magic is this?_ Something black and pale white flashed in front of his vision. The figure moved in front of the dark mage, magic radiated from the figure, matching the dark mage's power ounce by ounce. The dragon slayer gaped in shock, believing hi own eyes were playing tricks on him.

_"Gray?" _


	15. Chapter 15

**I do not own Fairy Tail. Enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Gray focused all his energy on the dark mage in front of him. He could scarcely realize the figures of his fellow guild mates he was protecting. All he saw before he attacked was the form of Natsu on the ground. After that the combination of his and the dark mage's magic a blinding light flashed and he no longer saw anyone.

When the glow faded enough he glared at the other mage. A scar was present under his eye. _So this is the bastard that works for Zeref._

"I see you finally showed up." Isamu's tone held a challenge in it. "You're a lot harder to find than I thought you were be. All this time you were off killing all my demons. Unforgivable."

"What do you want." Gray matched his voice to Isamu's.

A wicked grin spread across the dark mage's face. "Turns out we can't wait for you to die on your own. I'm here to speed things up." A black magic circle formed under Isamu's feet. Gray moved into a stance.

Natsu watched in terror as his best friend and rival challenged the dark mage._ Is he insane? Gray can't fight that guy._ The dragon slayer studied his friend. Magic energy visibly traveled over Gray, like blue electricity. _Something's different with him. That's not his magic._

The two mages clashed before the on looking guilds. Two magic circles the size of a valley appeared, one deathly black, the other dark blue. Natsu felt the temperature drop to freezing. The sound of an explosion rang in his ears and he was pushed back from the force, landing near Lucy.

Two beams of magical energy pushed against the other. The dragon slayer squinted into the one that belonged to Gray. He didn't look so good. Gray's left side had black veins traveling up and down. _What's wrong with him?!_

When the two mages broke away from the others force they went into their next attack. Gray raised his hand to the sky. Above him the sky turned from clear to light grey, to dark storm clouds in less than a second. He pulsed his ice magic into the sky freezing and precipitation and gathering it to him.

Across from him Isamu seemed to be doing something similar. Magic energy swirled around him, creating a vortex._ So he uses death magic._ Gray thought bitterly. _I'm going to enjoy this. _Gray sent the force of the frozen sky onto the dark mage. The other doing likewise.

Gray moved to the side, missing the worst of the attack. "Is that all you got?" Gray turned behind him in time to see Isamu's fist covered in death magic hit him squarely in his chest. _So he uses transport as well as I do. _"Are you going to be serious in this fight, or should I not waste my time?"

Gray transported away from the dark mage, giving them a few meters distance between them. He forced his two arms in front of him, forming an x, the left facing up, the right downwards.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Natsu stared at the stance his friend had taken. "YOU SAID YOU WEREN'T GOING TO USE THAT SPELL!"

Lyon watched the younger pupil take the stance for ice shell._ It's not the same as hen Ur did it, or when Gray almost did back on Galuna Island. What dark magic has Gray been learning?_

Gray held his arms in position. Icy wind whipped around him in sharp blast. He moved his arms to the side. He remembered Ur performing a similar spell. The difference was when her hands went back, they were flat to the side. Gray spread his arms away from his body, he could hear his friends screaming at him somewhere far off. Keeping the right hand downwards he turned over the left.

His ice magic went out at touched every possible surface it could. It froze everything solid, from every tree to every blade of grass. Similar to what he had done at the beginning of learning pure magic. Raising his arms back up he heard the ice crack into millions of icicles, sharp enough to run someone through. Stretching his magic further out he moved it onto Isamu, freezing his legs from moving. In a swift motion he brought his arms down. Every icicle rushed at his target.

Natsu's eyes were locked firmly on Gray._ He's still here, he's not ice._ A wave of relief washed over him._ Idiot, I'll kill him for scaring me later._

"What did he just do!" Lucy screamed over the wind.

"It was like a reverse iced shell." Lyon yelled back. "It froze everything but what he was aiming for."

"Is that even possible?!" Erza gaped, the forest had disappeared, the trees having been turned into icicles.

"It shouldn't be."

Gray watched as the ice finished shattering. Isamu stood where he had been. Blood dripped from most of his body, but that wicked grin of his was still there. "I would have expected more from the child of Deliora." Isamu strode over to him, as if nothing had happened. "Then again, you still block most of your own magic." Magic circles formed around Gray. A flash went off and he felt magic slice into his body, blood ran down his form onto the ground.

"Will onii-chan be okay?" Aiko asked in a small voice.

"He'll be fine." Takeshi tried to reassure her.

Erza heard the teen's words to the small girl. _I hope he'll be._

Gray forced himself to keep standing. A soft blue glow surrounded him and he began to heal himself, probably one of the most useful open spells was healing in this fight. Gray's formed shimmered gold and he used the next useful one, transport.

Isamu could hardly contain his excitement. _If I can just get this mage to be serious this could be a real fight._ His own form shimmered and he himself used transport.

Natsu watched the battle raging going on before his eyes. He heard every sound of battle and faint glimpses of his friends but that was it. Gray's form disappeared and reappeared in less than a second. Something the dark mage said earlier nagged at his mind. "What does he mean, child of Deliora?" He turned accusingly to the mages that had appeared earlier.

The girl about his age had a grim look on her face. "Hopefully nothing that will matter in the long run."

Natsu was taken aback by that. _Doesn't matter? Who gets called the child of a demon for no reason! _The fire mage turned back to his friend. A sickening feeling washed over him as he watched his friend. He eyed the black veins traveling along his friend,_ what happened to him?_

Gray moved to the side, missing the dark mage's strike at him by a few hairs. He moved back only to be caught by a slice of magic, making a gash into his chest. The ice mage was sent back by the force, crashing into the frozen earth behind him. Gray felt his breath get knocked out of him.

He glanced up at the dark mage watching him expectantly. "Are you really going to give up?" Gray didn't reply; he watched the dark mage before him. Isamu grinned, "So other mages aren't a challenge. The violet fool didn't stand a chance. Nor did that old geezer show anything better than mediocrity."

Gray narrowed his eyes at that. _Does he mean Daiki?_ The ice mage pushed himself to his feet. "I see that got your attention. I guess sending countless demons at people wasn't enough." Gray felt anger swell up inside him._ So this is the bastard that sends demons on civilians. _

Gray felt the dark thought in the back of his head grow._ Damn this guy. He sent demons after the guilds._ Magic energy swirled around Gray, encasing him. He clenched his fist, _he's a demon, no human can do that and not feel guilt._ The ice mage stared at the other man. The magic energy that had swirled around Gray had started to become deadly slices. _He's not the only demon here._

Natsu's eyes widened in horror. Gray's eyes had turned blood red, _like Zeref's._

"This magic," Lyon gasped.

Sherry trembled beside him. "The last time I've seen magic like this…"

Lyon nodded. _It's the same magic Deliora used, all those years ago._

Natsu clinched his hands into a fist._ What are they talking about?! Gray would never use magic like that._

Masaru barely heard the mage's conversation. Her eyes were locked on Gray's hand, which was slowly moving up to the pendent around his neck._ What the hell is he thinking?! _"GRAY, DON'T!"

Gray tore the necklace from around his neck. It was like all the energy he had been refraining from holding back was released at once. A black magic circle appeared under him, casting out in all directions. The sky above him had turned completely dark. He felt the magic around him, pulling it towards him. He raised his arm up, gathering the magic in his palm. He reeled his arm back, then sent it towards his the dark mage.

Isamu could hardly contain his excitement._ I've finally found my demon…_

Gray looked in front of him. The magic he had thrown had burrowed into the ground in a trail. The earth remained scorched for a moment, before leaping into flames. He gathered more magic energy around his other palm. Gray swept his arm out at an angle, leaving an arc of flames springing from the ground.

The magic flowed around him, catching his attention. _What else can Deliora do?_ Gray focused on the magic he was casting. _What if I sent it somewhere else?_ Gray moved his now red eyes up to the dark sky. He opened his palm upwards, sending the magic into the sky. The magic he sent up came raining back down, hitting everything, instead of a path.

Isamu studied the mage._ He's finally reached his demon state. _He straightened up, _I suppose that means I shouldn't holdback either._

Natsu ducked to the ground, trying to avoid the rain of magic Gray caused. He gritted his teeth, awaiting the magic to hit his body. Natsu looked up when he didn't feel anything. The girl from earlier, the one he didn't know, stood before the guild members. He watched her strain as she formed a magic shield, protecting them against the magic rain.

The dragon slayer's eyes traveled back to his friend. _Since when does Gray use dark magic?_

Takeshi moved next to Masaru, adding what magic he had remaining to the shield. "What the hell is he thinking?!"

"I don't know." Masaru answered back. "He shouldn't have been able to reach his demon state. How he did is beyond me. But if there's anything left of him there won't be for long."

"How do we stop him?" Masaru glanced over at the voice. A pink haired mage looked at her for an answer.

_Is this guy serious? He really thinks he can stop someone in their demon state?_ "You can't. Gray has to run out of magic or be defeated. But the latter really isn't a solution." Masaru began to feel the shield she formed crack under her fingers. _Dammit Gray, you're going to get us all killed._

Natsu and the others were sent flying back as the shield crumbled to pieces. A wave of magic hit each mage head on. Natsu gritted his teeth. "GRAY!"

Gray could hear the sounds of his friends screaming behind him._ What friends? You're above them._ A smirk spread across the ice mage's face. _They're not worth much anyway. _

"GRAY!"

Gray felt as if someone had splashed cold water in him, his mind wheeled in shock. _How can I say that! _ Gray turned towards his friends, terror was plain on their faces._ What am I doing?_

_ Getting rid of the distractions. _

_ But they're family?_

_ Forget that. You're part of Deliora, meaning you work for Zeref. _Gray felt sick at that statement. _That's right, Zeref created Deliora. You are part of Zeref now. Their your enemies. _

Gray felt himself raise his palm in the direction of his friends. He struggled against himself, trying to pull his arm down. Magic twisted around his hand. _Dammit, they're your friends._ Gray felt the magic begin to leave his grasp, heading towards it target.

He jerked his hand to the side, sending the magic off course. The magic collided into the ground beside where his friends were. _You're weak._

He ignored the voice in his head. He glanced around him. _Isamu's gone,_ he thought bitterly. He looked around him. _Nothing's there._ The forest was gone, the earth was scorched, flames raged hundreds of feet tall._ This really is… destruction magic._

Gray's vision turned black and he fell to his knees. _"Gray!"_ The voices became fuzzy and indistinguishable in his ears. That was the last thing he remembered before he blacked out.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm thinking of starting another story that I could write while doing this one. Feel free to comment if you think I should go ahead or wait till I'm completely done with this story. I should be able to update at the same rate as I have been though.**


	16. Chapter 16

**I do not own Fairy Tail. Another chapter done! Enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Gray watched with mild curiosity at the scene unfolding in front of him. The familiar sight of Acnologia greeted his eyes. The scaly beast dug its claws into the ground, disturbing the earth beneath its feet. The dragon didn't even give a sign of noticing Gray's presence, leaving the ice mage to observe the dragon for hours on end. Every once in a while he heard a voice call his name in the distance, but he just brushed the noise aside.

"Beautiful, isn't he."

Gray turned to the figure beside him. The other him gazed at the beast, sitting peacefully with the ice mage.

Gray shrugged. "I guess so." His eyes stared intently at Acnologia's every move. The dragon was different from when it attacked the guild back on Tenrou Island. He was move gracefully, less chaotic. _Still would kill you without a second thought._ "Say, me, where are we?"

"Hmmm… Nowhere exactly. This is more of a resting place for Acnologia, a home of sorts. Zeref just keeps him here so civilians won't cause the beast trouble." The other me turned his gaze at me. "You know, Zeref isn't completely unreasonable. Play your cards right and he'll give you unimaginable power."

Gay snorted. "You're disgusting."

"I'm you."

Gray didn't retort. He could still feel his own dark blue eyes on him. "I'm not going to be one of Zeref's little henchmen, you know that, so why are you still here?"

"I know you're not working for Zeref. That doesn't mean you can't use what he gave you." Gray turned a curious eye to the other him. "You want to defeat that thing," he gestured to Acnologia, "you're not going to win without a few dirty tricks."

Gray turned back to the dragon. _As much as I hate to admit it, I'm right._ The ice mage groaned, "What do you propose."

"Balance out your magic." Gray turned back to the other, slightly evil, him. "No pure magic mage has ever been perfectly balanced. It's not like we will be any time soon. Throw yourself into a dire situation, it will either shock you into balance, or kill you. Pretty good chance it will end with you dying, but it's not like you're going to live anyway."

Gray didn't reply. He mused over his own words. He turned back to the other him, determination written plain as day on his face. "I don't do anything half assed."

* * *

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S DYING?!"

Natsu sent a glare at the older mage that had shown up earlier, Masaru, he believed her name was. Gray lain on the ground in the camp the mages had set up, the meeting building having been destroyed in the occurrence earlier. The fire mage was stricken at the condition he had found his friend earlier. At first Gray hadn't seemed to be breathing. One of the new comers, he wasn't sure which one, must have used some sort of healing spell on him, though Gray had remained unconscious for the past few hours.

Masaru rubbed her temples in frustration. The fire mage wasn't the brightest flame in the fire. "It means he's dying. Can't make it simpler than that."

"LIKE HELL YOU CAN'T!" Natsu was scarcely aware of Happy sobbing next to him. Erza and Lucy looked downcast. _Can't blame them._ "Isn't there something you can do!"

"It's not like it can be healed. It's a curse. Only the caster can remove it."

"What does that have to do with anything!"

"Calm down, flame brain."

The dragon slayer froze. Relief flooded him at the sound of his friend's voice. "Gray!" Natsu turned in the direction of his friend. Gray cracked an eye open, looking at the fire mage. "You okay? Ice Block."

"Better than ever." Gray pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"You really shouldn't be moving." Lucy cautioned him.

Gray responded with a grunt. Erza eyed the ice mage. Though Gray's eyes had returned to their normal color, his veins remained visibly black under his nearly transparent skin. "Rest a while longer." She ordered in a tone that meant no arguments.

The raven haired turned to the requip mage. "I'll rest later." Erza raised an eyebrow. She could count on one hand all the times someone hadn't done what she said.

"Onii-chan!" Aiko wrapped her small arms around the ice mage's body.

Gray lightly patted her head. "Don't tell me you were worried?" Aiko shook her head, the ice alchemist smiled at the young girl. He felt a smaller, furrier, being hug him also. "Hey, Happy."

"Grrraaaaaayyyyy. Don't scare us like that."

"I won't."

"Damn right you won't." Natsu's held a slight tone of anger in his voice. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"NATSU!"

The dragon slayer brushed off Lucy's cry. "You act unlike your usual icy self. You disappear from the guild for a month. Then you suddenly show up out of thin air with some high and mighty power. What the hell have you been doing?!" He yanked Gray up from the ground by his collar. "Answer me." Natsu gritted through his teeth.

Gray avoided Natsu's eyes. He felt the dragon slayer's grip on him tighten. "Call it a few last deeds."

Natsu released his grasp, Gray crumpled to the ground. "Idiot, that's not what I meant." Gray gazed at the fire mage. Natsu was trying to be angry with him, but one of his signature grins was spreading across his face.

Lyon watched the younger pupil with mild curiosity. "I would like to know, where did you learn those spells?"

Gray smiled sheepishly. "I sort of invented them." The older ice mage raised an eyebrow, but continued no further.

"You sure you're okay?" Sense of worry was present in Lucy's question. "You went through a lot."

The ice mage tried for a convincing smile. "Don't worry about it."

"Don't avoid what I really want to know." Natsu stormed. Lucy paled,Natsu had shifted from his cheerful self into a challenging one._ Don't tell me he's going to fight Gray._

Natsu eyed the ice mage. "Now, tell me…" The dragon slayer's voice was deadly. "When did you learn new magic?" Lucy smacked her forehead. His tone had gone from fearful to sounding like a five year old's question about simple intelligence.

Gray released a sigh, for a moment there, he was worried he was on his friend's bad side. "Umm, well…" Gray caught Masaru's eye._ Don't tell anyone. _"It doesn't really matter."

"The heck, brain freeze. Yes it does."

"I concur with Natsu." Erza spoke up. "It's not normal for a mage to progress that fast. How did you do it, Gray?"

Gray turned his gaze away from the scarlet haired. "Not important."

"What? Yes it is!" Natsu sounded irritated.

"It doesn't matter, stop asking." Takeshi, who had remained silent, suddenly commanded. Natsu glared at the younger teen. A silent war seemed to go on between the two boys, both to stubborn to give in.

Masaru sighed after a few moments and slapped Takeshi on the back of his head. Erza did simultaneously to Natsu. "At any rate, it's best to leave the matter alone." Masaru's tone left no room for arguments.

Erza nodded in agreement. "It's been a long day. I suggest we all get some rest."

If Gray had any hope that any of the mages would get along, they were crushed. Takeshi and Masaru slept on the other side of the clearing, away from the guild mages. The ice mage rubbed his temples in frustration. _It's going to be a long night._

* * *

Gray cracked his eyes open for the second time that night. The moonlight illuminated his surroundings. Natsu's snoring echoed across the valley. _Is that guy never quiet?_ Gray tried to block out the noise of his friend, closing his eyes he tried to return to sleep.

He felt something perk up in the back of his mind. _Really? Right now?_ Gray pushed himself up into a sitting position, focusing on what he felt._ Let's see… demon, somewhere east of here. No, a group of demons._ He held his head in his hands. He felt for his magic power. A small force appeared in response. Gray suppressed a groan, he had only recovered a little bit of magic._ It's not a one person job anyway._

The ice mage turned to his side and gently shook the sleeping figure next to him awake. Aiko sleepily opened her eyes at the ice alchemist. Gray put a finger to his lips, motioning her to be quiet. The ice mage slowly stood up, not making a sound. The small girl stood up next to him. The two quietly made their way to the other side of the clearing, being careful not to wake anyone up.

He should have known Masaru and Takeshi were already up waiting for him when the two reached them. Takeshi gave them a look,_ what took you so long?_

_ Nothing, just didn't want to disturb anyone. _Gray replied mentally back. The ice mage watched silently as Masaru formed a portal for the group. Gray nudged a sleepy Aiko through and stepped in afterwards.

"Finally! I was beginning to think we were never going to get away from those guys."

"They're not so bad." A tired Aiko mumbled.

Takeshi snorted. "You only think that because they like you."

"They like Onii-chan."

"Yeah, but they know Gray."

"Do you ever stop talking?" Masaru turned around and glared around at the younger teen. "We have a job to do. Now stop goofing off."

Gray raised an eyebrow at the other mage. He'd never seen her this irritated. Masaru stormed off in the direction he felt the demons at. "Is she okay?"

He received no response for a few moments. "She'll be fine. She's just upset." Gray waited for him to say more. "Isamu murdered Daiki. A long time ago Daiki took care off both of them. A few years back Isamu disappeared and when he came back he was completely devoted to Zeref."

Gray couldn't help but flinch at that. _All of us are really screwed up, aren't we?_ Gray observed other pure magic mages. "But we're family too. Right?" Gray clanked down at the girl next to him.

"That's right." Aiko smiled up at him, Gray couldn't help but smile back._ Geez, if Lyon and I were one fifth this cute when we were younger, it's no wonder Ur took us in. _"What happened to him anyway?"

Takeshi shrugged. "Who knows, that bastard disappeared after you passed out.

Gray looked back up when he heard the sound of snarling. Masaru stood meters away, beating the living crap out of some demons. _She's as bad as Erza…_

The ice mage felt hot breath travel down his neck. He swirled around and landed a fatal blow to the middle of a demon's chest. From their each mage broke off into his or her own fight.

…

Gray stood, surveying the scene before him._ That was oddly simple._ "So what do we do now?" Aiko piped up.

"I vote we stay as far away from those other mages as we can." Takeshi replied.

"I second that." Gray sent a surprised look at Masaru. "What? They're not my nakama."

Gray sighed. "I need to go back. I owe them some sort of explanation."

* * *

Isamu bowed before the dark mage. "My deepest apologies, sire."

"I have no choice to take care of it then. Though I believe the problem will solve itself. Hopefully with no major harm to my pet."

"I firmly believe Acnologia will be fine, sire."

"If I were you, I'd worry about myself." Zeref stood up from his throne. "I've grown tired of your incompetence. I sent you to end him, yet he walks around with breath still in his lungs." He approached the kneeling mage before him. "I require no further use for you."

Zeref gathered a storm of death magic about him. The magic swirled about the mage, till finally spreading out and hitting its target. The mage before him crumbled. Zeref let out a sigh in annoyance. "Gray Fullbuster, you should have died a long time ago."

* * *

Natsu twitched in annoyance. _Dammit, where did that snowflake go?_ He sniffed the air. _His trail just ends right here. How does he just vanish out of thin air?_ A glimmer out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Natsu found himself turning to the source. He watched as Gray seemed to step out of a magic circle to a few meters away from him._ How did he do that?!_

"Oi, flame brain. What are you sniffing at?"

"Nothing, just your bad scent."

Gray trotted up to the fire mage. "Can I tell you something? Preferably where we won't be overheard."

Natsu raised a pink eyebrow. Not often did Gray talk to him in confidence, the dragon slayer would usually just blurt out what he was told. "Sure." Natsu took a closer look at the ice mage. "Are you positive you're okay? You look kind of nervous."

"That's because I'm about to do something really stupid."

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, though not much happened. I'm going to be writing a lot this week (it's spring break!) so look forward to quick updates. **


	17. Chapter 17

**I do not own Fairy Tail. As always, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

"I don't get it." Gray had to resist the urge to slap some sense into Natsu.

"I'll explain it one more time." The ice mage gritted through his teeth (having already explained it repeatedly). "It's called pure magic and-"

"So why can't anyone else use it?"

"If you'll stop interrupting me I can elucidate." The fire mage was starting to annoy him now._ Just like old times._ Gray thought bitterly. "Only people who somehow break the distance between their magic and its magic ancestor can lea-"

"So why did you go nuts yesterday?"

"For the love of all things magic, STOP TALKING!"

Natsu was silent for a few moments after Gray's outburst. The two mages sat alone out of sight of the rest of the light team. "As I was saying, I can use pure magic because of the Deliora attack when I was little made it possible for me to connect with my magic ancestor." Natsu opened his mouth to interrupt him, but closed it with a stern look from Gray. "Thing is, Zeref uses pure magic in almost everything he does, so regular magic can't match it. Me, being a pure magic user, makes me the perfect candidate to fight whatever he comes up with."

"But how do you just appear out of thin air?!" The fire mage could no longer contain himself.

The ice mage raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Every time you disappear I try to sniff you out. But you damn scent just ends with no trail. How are you doing that!"

"Oh, that." It dawned on Gray what he meant. "It's called an open spell. The one I use for that is called transport. Basically it takes me wherever I want to go without having to travel there."

The answer seemed to please the dragon slayer. "That's a relief."

"Relief?"

One of Natsu's goofy grins was plastered across his face. "Yep, when I couldn't track you scent I was worried my nose was broken."

Gray had to once again restrain himself from slapping the dragon slayer, this time because of his stupidity. "Was that really what you thought? Or did that small brain of yours keep you from thinking beyond that?"

"Bastard! Are you callin' me an idiot?!"

"No, I'm implying it." Natsu grabbed Gray's collar of the shirt he was miraculously wearing. The two mages glared at each other. Each mage daring the other to make a move to start one of their famous rivalry fights. I feeling began to tug at the back of the ice mage's mine. "Ah, shit."

"What is it?" Natsu loosened his grip on the ice mage.

"Nothing you need to worry about."_ Why right now? I just got to talk to someone. _"I'll be back in a little while." Gray stepped away from the fire mage. He motioned his hand and a portal formed in next to him.

"Oh no you don't." Natsu grabbed the back of Gray's shirt as the ice alchemist stepped through what he just created.

Gray's eyes widened as he realized what the other did. "Natsu, let go."

Natsu fell through the portal Gray had created. The fire dragon's eyes widened as he glanced around him. He was falling, but he wasn't where he just was. He felt himself collide with the ground, hard. "Ow." The fire mage pushed himself up, just in time to see Gray hit him.

"Idiot! Why did you do that!"

"Well if you'd stop disappearing I wouldn't have need to!" Natsu glared at the ice mage.

"Whatever, I'm sending you back." Gray moved to form another portal.

"Don't you dare." Natsu grabbed the ice mage's hands. "Do you really think I'm going to let you out of my sight. Were guild mates, we work together."

"Natsu-" Gray was cut off by the sound of a roar from behind him.

"What is that thing?!" Natsu watched in slight horror the monster behind Gray.

Gray glanced behind him. "Oh that? It's just a little monster."

"Little!" Natsu may not be bright, but his eyes never lied to him. "That _thing_ has to be the size of the guild."

"Hmm, I guess so." Gray thought back._ When was the last time a demon was intimidating?_ "At any rate, this will only take a few seconds." The ice mage moved into one of his stances. "Ice Make: Death Scythe!" Gray moved swiftly and brought his scythe down on the beast.

"Karyū no Hōkō!"

Gray glanced at Natsu out of the corner of his eye. "Idiot! What are you doing?!"

Natsu moved into a battle stance as he joined the fray. "Didn't I just say guild mates work together? Besides, I'm not gonna let you have all the fun."

Gray couldn't hold back his smile._ That moron never changes._ "Ice Make: Hammer!"

…

Natsu broke out into a huge grin at the defeated demon before them. "And you wanted to do this on your own."

Gray rolled his eyes. "I couldn't go all out, flame brain. You kept getting in the way."

"You saying I'm a problem?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

The two mages sent friendly glares the other's way. Natsu suddenly snapped out of his glare. "Wait a minute, that portal thingy you did earlier."

"What about it?"

"Would you consider that transportation?"

"Yeah, why?"

Natsu pumped his fist into the air. "You know what that means right?" A blank stare from Gray. "It means that I, Natsu Dragneel, have conquered transportation."

"Natsu, I don't think it works that way."

"Eh, how so?"

Gray groaned at his friend's stupidity. "You never cease to amaze me." He felt another thought tug at the back of his mind._ Oh great, another one._

Gray focused on where the feeling came from._ That's weird, I can't find anything._

The ice mage snapped his head up. A familiar sound echoed through his skull. _A dragon's roar…_

Natsu studied his friend. Gray had suddenly gone very still and his pupil had dilated in terror. "Oi, Gray!" The fire mage grabbed the raven by his shoulders and started to shake him. "Snap out of it, oi, Gray!"

Gray felt the roar ringing in his ears. He could just barely make out that Natsu was yelling at him. _Does he not hear it?_ Natsu's image started to turn black in front of his eyes. Gray watched as his surroundings started fading away. No, started being replaced.

* * *

The vision of a black, scaly dragon came before his eyes. Its claws disturbed the earth as it walked toward a figure Gray couldn't make out. _Is someone in danger?_

Gray found his feet were moving towards the figure before he could think about the dragon in his way. "Hey you!" Gray called to the figure. "Get out of here!" _Can he not hear me?_ "Ice Make: Saucer!" A slice of ice was sent at the dragon. It passed straight through its leg, the dragon didn't even seem to notice. Gray stared at the spot where he had sent his ice._ There's not even a scratch there… but it went through the scales. _Gray stared wide eyed at the dragon._ It's just an image?_

The dragon came to a complete stop in front of the figure. It lowered its head until its eyes were equal to the figures._ Is Acnologia… bowing?_

If Gray's eyes could get any wider they did. When Acnologia lowered its head the figure became visible in Gray's eyes. The ice mage froze, partway in surprise, partway in horror.

The figure was of a young man, though Gray knew better. He had soft, raven black hair. His eyes blazed crimson red. A white toga was draped across his left shoulder that wrapped around his slim body. The man reached his hand out and laid on Acnologia's head, the only man in the world that could pull such a stunt. Gray felt himself tremble as his eyes gazed at the Black Wizard.

"Zeref…" Gray's voice was small and full of disbelief. He felt his breath catch in his throat. Rage boiled inside of him. Here stood the man who had started all this. The one who caused his friend's to lose seven years of his life. The wizard that created the monster that killed his parents. The very demon that Ur had sacrificed herself to seal.

He felt his feet once again running to the figure, this time to attack it. Gray felt himself collide with something hard. The ice mage stared at the barrier before him. _Runes?_ Gray brought his fist up, smashing the runes in a desperate attempt to break them.

Zeref glanced at the ice mage. "Is there really a need for that? None of us are really here after all."

Gray gritted his teeth. The dark mage smirked smugly. Gray felt all the anger he had ever had come pouring out.

"ZEREF!"

"Are you going to use this to your advantage?" Gray stopped trying breaking the runes and listened to the dark mage. "Here I am, showing you everything you want to know. Tell me you're not going to let that go to waste."

Gray eyed the dark mage._ What is he playing at?_

The dark mage glowered at the ice mage. "You were a mistake. Pure magic mages should have never been possible. Regardless, here you are." The dark mage began taking a few steps closer to the ice mage. "You have the gallantry to challenge my creations, destroy my work."

The dark mage was now standing in front of Gray, only the runes were in between them. "We're not so different. Both of us have our magic, our power, our bad side." Zeref's eyes petrified Gray. "Too bad there's only room for one great mage like us to exist."

Gray saw a flash of magic hit him before he blacked out.

* * *

Natsu shook Gray's body, trying to wake him up. "Oi, come on Gray. Don't do this to me." Gray's eyes groggily opened. Natsu felt the breath he had been holding out. "Geez, ice block, don't scare me like that."

Gray stared at the fire mage with a confused expression on his face. "Where are…" Gray trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.

The dragon slayer groaned. "How should I know where we are? You're the one who teleported us here."

Gray watched the fire mage with curiosity. Natsu heard him mutter something that sounded a lot like Zeref. "What?" Natsu shook the ice mage some more.

Gray's eyes suddenly widened and he stood straight up.

"I know where Acnologia is!"


	18. Chapter 18

**I do not own Fairy Tail. Enjoy!**

* * *

"Huh?" The fire mage blinked in surprise at Gray's sudden outburst.

_Shit._ The ice mage thought._ Maybe I shouldn't have said that in front of him._"Nothing, nothing. Here's an idea." Gray grabbed the back of Natsu's collar with one hand, the other he used to form a portal. "You can go back to where Erza and Lucy are." Gray began pushing the dragon slayer towards the portal.

"Not so fast, ice block." Natsu grabbed ahold of Gray's arm before being pushed through. "You really think you can say that with no further explanation." The fire mage turned around until he was staring in the other's eyes. "What are you planning?"

They two mages stood like that for a minute, neither backing down. Finally Gray released Natsu's collar. "Don't get involved." Gray turned around and walked away from the dragon slayer. "I'll leave that portal up for you for a while. I suggest you go through it. It's a week's travel from Fiore from here." Gray swiftly moved his arm, forming another portal for his own use.

"Oi! Don't think you can just walk away from the question."

Gray exasperated. "Natsu, go back to the guild. Don't get mixed up in what I'm about to do."

"Dammit, Gray. When are you going to get it through that thick head of yours? We're a guild, we fight together. Since when do we leave the other to face something alone?"

Gray didn't turn around to face the fire mage. "You never do give up, do you?"

"What are you ta-" A force of ice hit the fire mage head on, forcing him backwards until he fell into the portal the ice alchemist had made earlier. The last thing he saw before disappearing through the portal was Gray's back as he entered the opposite portal.

…

The mages from Lamia Scale had already left to travel back home. The Fairy Tail mages were about to do likewise. Erza was writing a letter to the magic council, explaining this whole occurrence was just a misunderstanding. Though she made sure to leave out a majority of the case, after all, if the council found out Gray was using magic that Zeref used, without a doubt the ice mage would be taken prisoner.

Erza perked her head up when something out of the corner of her eye caught her eye. Natsu came from falling out of thin air, crashing to the ground. "Natsu?"

The requip mage, along with Lucy, rushed up to the dragon slayer, who was now laying on the ground. "Natsu, are you okay?" Lucy asked, lightly shaking the mage's shoulders.

"Ugh…" The fire mage moaned.

"Natsuuuuu," Happy sang. The two exceeds and Wendy trotted up to the fire mage.

Wendy kneeled down to begin using healing magic on the mage. Erza reached out her hand to stop her. "Don't bother, he'll be fine."

As if on cue, the fire mage sat up. "Gray needs our help."

* * *

Gray felt slightly guilty. He knew Natsu was right when he said gilds fight together. But the ice mage just couldn't bring himself to get the guild involved in his cockamamie plan._ It's probably not even going to work._ Gray rubbed his temples in frustration. _I'm not even completely sure what I'm going to do._

The ice mage ignored into a small clearing where the other three pure magic mages were currently present at. He waved at the oldest mage of the three to draw her attention. "Hey, that one sealing spell you told me about, how does that work?"

* * *

"HE'S PLANNING WHAT?!" Erza's yell echoed throughout the valley.

"I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding. Maybe it's something else entirely." Lucy tried to calm the scarlet.

"Like hell it is!" Natsu yelled. "What else could he be planning!"

"As much as I hate to admit it, it's the only possible explanation." Carla added.

"Where is he?! If we have to drag him back to the guild we will." Happy and Lucy shivered at Erza's tone.

"I don't know where he is. He just left without any explanation." Natsu mentioned.

"How are we going to find him?" Wendy said in a small voice.

Lucy nodded in agreement. "It's not like he's going to just show. If he doesn't want us with him, he's certainly not going to show up again."

Erza thought this over for a moment. A wicked grin spread across her face and a dark aura surrounded her. Lucy and Happy shivered at her look. "No, he won't show. But we can get the next best thing."

* * *

Masaru was drawing a rough diagram into the ground. It looked like a family tree of sorts. "Here," she pointed to one part of the diagram, "is where you're at." Gray nodded as she labeled the spot_ iced shell._ "The spell directly above that is an ice spell similar to that. It's closer to its parent magic so the effects are slightly different. It still forms an unmeltable ice case around your target. But can still be melted by moon drip." She labeled that part a spell Gray didn't recognize. "What you want is the parent magic of these spells." She pointed to the top part of the diagram.

"What exactly is it?"

"I can't say for certain. Iced shell could have been derived from a completely different aspect then what you're looking for. All that is known about it is that it won't thaw if moon drip is used."

Gray nodded. "In other words, this could do the opposite of what I need it to?" A nod in response. "But it can also put an end to The Black Dragon." Another nod. Gray mused over this for a moment. "There's no way it's this simple. Zeref wouldn't make it this easy."

"That's the problem." Gray looked at the other mage. "The parent spell and we're you're at in pure magic is too far of a gap. You won't be able to pull it off."

Gray pondered that for a moment. "You're wrong about that." The other mage raised her eyebrow at him. "You keep forgetting, I'm not just any mage. I'm a Fairy Tail mage, and if there's one thing true about all Fairy Tail mages, it's that we don't give up that easily."

* * *

"There is no way this is going to work." Lucy groaned as Erza and Natsu put the finally touches on their plan.

"Aye." Happy agreed next to her, "and I don't even get to eat the fish."

"Would you stop thinking about fish." Carla complained next to him.

Lucy sighed. Whatever thought had gone through Erza's mind to come up with this elude the celestial spirit mage. Natu was the only one who agreed with the scarlet on the idea. So now the mages were gathered around a small pond, fishing.

"Why are we doing this again." Lucy asked.

"Cause we need bait." Natsu answered cheerfully, pulling his fishing pole back as he got a bite.

"Do demons even like fish?" The Carla inquired.

"I'll make them like fish." Erza glowered.

Lucy shivered at her tone. "Erza, I don't think it works that way." Lucy replied, pulling her pole up as she got another bite. Lucy unhooked the poor fish and threw it on top of the pile. "Do you think we have enough fish?"

"More importantly, can I please have one?" Happy piped up.

Both their questions were ignored. A small tug shook Wendy's pole. "Oh, I think I've caught something." The blue haired girl smiled, happy she could be of help. Wendy started pulling the pole towards her to hoist the fish up.

"Do you need some help?" Lucy questioned, seeing the smaller girl struggling. Wendy was able to gasp out a small yes as Lucy started pulling the pole up with her. Happy and Carla put down their own poles to help. "This is a bigger fish than I thought." Lucy gasped as the fish tried pulling the two girls and two cats into the pond.

"Let me try." Natsu strode over to the struggling group. In one swift motion he grabbed the pole and swung the attached fish out of the pond.

Lucy's eyes widened as a fish the size of a small train car flew came flying from the water. "THAT WAS IN THIS SMALL OF A POND!"

Erza strolled over to where Natsu stood proudly holding the fish. Titania was quiet for a moment, inspecting the fish. "I think we have enough bait."


	19. Chapter 19

**I do not own Fairy Tail. Enjoy!**

* * *

Gray scratched a rough drawing into the dry ground. "Acnologia lives in this general are." He drew a circle on the ground. "A mountain over here," he drew triangles to the side of the circle. "gives it its bounds. The dragon doesn't go over that land mass, otherwise the runes surrounding him are broken and he is moved into the real world."

Masaru nodded next to him. "In other words, we have this area to plan our attack once we get there." She outlined a circle on the drawing.

"Basically. I'm thinking we leave traps along the barrier specific for the dragon, that we don't get stuck along with it."

"Agreed."

"There's a small beach over here." Gray continued. "It's not much, but freezing it will be a cinch. I'll use that to my advantage. Everything between the mountain and sea is mostly forest. Though one roar from Acnologia and that'll be gone. That may or may not work against us. There won't be any cover, but there won't be anything to hit use when he roars."

"Any direct battle strategy?"

The ice mage nodded. "Acnologia's massive. There are not many blind spots for him except directly behind his head. Regular transportation will take too long. You and I will alternate; we're both capable of transportation while skipping the portal phrase. One of us will transport directly above him to vital spots. I figure we can do that a few times before he figures out what we're doing. After that happens it's full on battle, no plan for it."

* * *

Takeshi swiftly walked forward through the clearing._ Where is it?_ He thought. A soft growling could be heard a little further away. The smell of fish lingered in the air. _Some fisherman must have left his goods out._ He concluded. It wasn't often demons ate food close to humans, but it didn't mean it was impossible.

Takeshi moved onwards till the hind legs of a beast met his eyes. The creature was snapping its jaws of what appeared to be a rather large pile of sent a slice of air at the demon which then collapsed dead._ This doesn't make sense. There's fish, but where's the fisherm-_

He heard the clinking of metal then an armored hand clasped his left shoulder. His captor held a sword against his neck, keeping him from struggling. He slowly glanced up to see a wave of scarlet hair sway in the pale moonlight.

* * *

"Once Acnologia is fully occupied with that I'll make my next move here." Gray pointed to the now marked over sketch. "That that point most of everything should be ready for the final strike."

"Are you sure about this?" Masaru asked.

The ice mage shrugged. "Not really, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to do it."

"Well that settles it. Now we just need enough time to set everything up tomorrow."

Gray nodded. "I just need the others over here so I can explain it." The ice mage glanced up from the drawing in the dirt. "Where are they anyways?"

Masaru shrugged in response. "I sent both of them on demon watch. I think they're both a little walk that way." She gestured to the direction.

Gray nodded. "Let's go get them."

* * *

"Takeshi, what took you so lon-" Aiko was cut off as she saw who the older boy was with.

"Where's Gray?" The form of Titania stood before the small child. Behind the scarlet were the forms of Natsu, Lucy, Wendy, and two cats.

"Umm…" _What do I do?_ The small girl panicked._ Gray-nii doesn't want his friends to get involved._

"It doesn't matter, I can smell him." Natsu spoke up, sniffing the air. "He's this way." The Fairy Tail mages moved in the direction Natsu sniffed at.

Aiko watched as the mages walked on. She reached out and grabbed Lucy's wrist. The blonde mage stopped and looked down to the girl in surprise. "Umm, Lucy…" Aiko started. "I'm sorry for not telling you everything when we first met."

Lucy smiled down at the small girl. "It's fine, you did it for your friends after all. Now come on," she grabbed the small girl's hand, "let's go see Gray."

"But-"

"We can't let you do that." Takeshi moved in front of Natsu, stopping him from going forward.

"Well the hell not?!" The fire mage snapped.

"We can't let you stop our plans. Someone needs to put an end to Acnologia. No average mage like you is going to get in our way."

Natsu's fist started to flame up. "You really think you can come between a Fairy Tail mages and their comrades." Natsu grabbed the young teen by his collar. "I may be an average mage, but that won't stop me from getting to my nakama."

Takeshi moved his hand up so he was gripping Natsu's wrist. "What does that have to do with anything. Acnologia has killed more innocents then will ever be known. Are you really going to stop someone who's going to put an end to all this terror without hesitation. The dragon's next target is Fiore, are just going to let all those people die without a fight?"

Lucy threw her hands over her mouth in surprise. "Fiore? But… if that hap-"

Something flashed across the blonde's vision that appeared between Natsu and Takeshi. The two mages went flying apart from the other. "WHO THE HELL DID THA-"

Natsu was cut off by a glare from a female mage around his age. Lucy felt Aiko move behind her in slight fear. "Masaru's mad now." She whispered to the celestial mage. Lucy gave a small nod in response.

Masaru quickly turned around and grabbed Takeshi. "Idiot! Why did you bring them here?"

"It's not my fault. That damn scarlet forced me."

"Well now you can send them back." An ice mage interrupted, stepping up to the group of mages.

Titania stomped up to the maker mage. "That's fine as long as you come with us." Her tone was slightly threatening.

The fire mage stepped up next to the scarlet. "Stop playing around, Gray. Did you forget what happened last time Acnologia attacked? You can't win."

"Don't you think I know that! Go back to the guild. You can't change my mind on this."

"I'll drag you back to the guild with us." Erza roared.

"No you won't. You're going back to the guild befor-"

"They're staying here." Masaru spoke up.

Gray turned towards her._ Traitor._ He thought. "No they are no-"

"We need the extra mages. If they're not going back to their guild they're sure as hell not going to watch. It's you choice mages." She turned towards the Fairy Tail wizards. "Either agree to help us or stop distracting us from our goal."

The mages were silent for a moment. "I'll fight." Natsu spoke up.

"Nat-" Gray started, only to be cut off by the scarlet.

"I as well." Titania announced.

"Me too." Lucy added.

"I would like to help." Wendy put in.

Carla nodded in agreement. "We can't just let all those people get hurt."

"Aye," Happy stated, "we're Fairy Tail after all. We don't go down without a fight."

"You're all suicidal." Gray lectured.

"You're one to talk." The fire mage draped his arm around the ice mage's shoulders. "Don't forget it ice block, I can't let you do something stupid without doing it with you."

* * *

"At that point Erza will have moved over here." Gray explained the new battle strategy to the group. "She'll strike with more speed then force. Once she's done Natsu will attack over here." The ice mage drew a circle on the designated area. "By then Aiko and Virgo should be finished with their part. Lucy will then summon Taurus for a direct attack over here." Gray outlined a location on the drawing. "Questions?"


	20. Chapter 20

**I do not own Fairy Tail. I'm not the best at writing fight scenes but I tried. (At least it's better then when people write a fight scene which lasts about a second with no real action.) So here is part one of the battle against Acnologia.**

* * *

"Just like that?" Gray nodded to the fire mage. Natsu, in turn, bestowed the orb of magic in Gray's hands with his own. "Does this really work.?"

Gray nodded again. "It's like a magic bomb. It'll hold someone's magic in it until it explodes on its target." The ice mage nestled the magic orb into the undergrowth of Acnologia's territory. The ice mage pushed himself up from the ground and looked at his friend. "Come on, we have a lot more land to cover."

* * *

"Now just lend me your hands." Wendy looked slightly doubtful at what she and the wind mage were about to do.

"Umm, okay." Takeshi held his arms out towards her. Carla was currently holding the blue haired girl high above the clouds, out of the Black Dragon's eyesight. Across from her, Happy was doing the same to Takeshi. "What exactly does this do?" She asked, unable to retain her curiosity.

"We can use a unison raid of sorts to form an air and wind lock. Meaning the skies up will change in pressure and wind currents. This way Acnologia can't fly off."

Wendy nodded in understanding, though she was still unsure of this. Wendy extended her hands to him. A soft glow picked up around their intertwined fingers. The blue hair girl tasted the air around her in wonder. The taste was different; the air pressure was shifting from high and low to high again rapidly. The wind around her, what had barely been noticeable before, was now whipping around her at all angles. Carla and Happy started to fly to the ground before the wind became too harsh for their wings.

* * *

Erza requiped to her next sword. Masaru ran a hand over the blade and hand the weapon back to the scarlet. The pure magic mage was giving Erza's swords an upgrade of sorts. She inserted her own magic into the blade so when the scarlet attacked it would leave more damage. A new technique the Fairy Tail mage was pleased to learn about.

* * *

"It should be somewhere over here." Lucy told to her companion. Aiko walked a few steps behind her, following the celestial mage's lead. The two made their way down the winding, underground, caverns. They twisted their way between the rock to their destination. Lucy let out a low whistle as she turned a corner. "Found it."

An open cavern was present before her. It was roughly the size of the city of Magnolia, just under where Acnologia was now lying down. Even more impressive, was the abyss the blonde knew was present underneath the cavern itself. The very abyss they needed to get to. Lucy took out one of her golden keys. "Ready?" She asked the small girl behind her. Aiko nodded in response, signaling she was ready for the job.

Lucy whipped her key in the air, opening the gate. A pink haired girl with shackles around her wrists appeared before her. The girl bowed before the blonde. "You called? Princess."

* * *

Wendy and Takeshi landed next to where Erza and Masaru now stood. "Everything go well?" The scarlet asked.

The blue haired girl nodded in response. A look of determination was placed about her. "Yep, what's next?"

"Gray and Natsu should be halfway done now. We start the same tactic around here." Masaru answered.

* * *

"This one's slightly different." Gray told the fire mage. "It won't stay in one place. It has a mind of its own. It's more like a snake than a bomb, it'll travel across Acnologia's body, hurting more of its flesh just a small part."

The dragon slayer nodded, apprehending what the maker mage just said. "Kind of like the trap Nullpuding set that Aiko stepped in."

"What?!"

"Nothing!" The fire mage tried calming down the ice mage.

* * *

"Princess," Virgo stuck her head out of the hole she was digging.

"Yes?"

"I've dug most of the harder packed earth up. With one strong blow from Aiko I believe when can shatter the cavern floor."

Lucy nodded in agreement. "Alright, you got that? AIko."

The small girl nodded. She grabbed the blonde's hand and pulled her away from the soon to be destroyed cave; Virgo following behind her. Aiko turned back around to face the cavern. Taking in a deep breath she focused her magic energy on the earth around her. In one swift movement she pushed her hand onto the ground.

A small break appeared along the floor. A cracking sound started to echo throughout the cavern. The break in the floor spread across to the other side. Lucy heard a loud, splitting sound. A moment later the cavern floor shattered and fell into the black abyss under the cavern.

The blonde gave the small girl a high five in accomplishment. Now all they had to do was fight Acnologia. "Punishment, Princess?" Virgo asked next to her.

* * *

Natsu listened as he heard the muffled sound of something similar to a mountain breaking in two. "Sounds like Aiko and Lucy are done." He commented.

Gray nodded. He watched between the forest trees as Acnologia shifted, disturbed by the sound. "We don't have much longer. Let's regroup."

* * *

Erza watched as Natsu and Gray jogged towards their group. A little beyond that she saw a mud covered Lucy and Aiko doing the same. The ice mage raised an eyebrow as he saw the two girls come to towards them. "Finished already?"

Lucy nodded. "The cavern floor wasn't as deep as we thought."

"Let's hope everything is that easy." Erza spoke up.

Gray watched as Acnologia began to push himself up from his current position. "Then let's go ahead and get into our spots." Happy flew and grabbed Natsu by the shoulders and flew into the sky. Carla did likewise with Wendy, taking her to battle position. The other mages left to go to their designated locations. The ice mage watched them leave, hoping that they all came back.

…

Gray tried to steady his breathing. He focused his magic onto what he planned to form. He was to be the first to strike, signaling the other mages to attack. Acnologia was standing up now, sniffing the air at the mage's presence._ Any moment now._ Gray watched as Acnologia turned his head in direction Natsu was, just like they had planned. Now the dragon's eyesight was away from the ice mage, revealing a vulnerable neck.

"Ice make," Gray moved his right hand onto his left palm. "LANCE!"

A spear of ice shot forward, burying itself into Acnologia's scaly neck. The dragon recoiled from the attack, spinning around to face Gray. A split second later a blast of fire came at the dragon's other side, hitting the other part of its neck. Acnologia let out a roar of pain, only to have a blend of Sagittarius' arrows and Erza's many swords to dig their way into his left shoulder blade.

Acnologia spun around to the new assaulter. The dragon's stepped its foot into one of Gray's and Natsu many traps. Flames leapt up around its foot, licking its scales. Gray moved to the side, forming his next attack. "Ice make: Hammer!" A frozen mallet appeared in Gray's hands. He swiftly moved it down into Acnologia's side.

The dragon let out a scream, only to have a blast of magic from Masaru hit it head on. Wendy and Takeshi fought side by side, sending wind and air magic at Acnologia's body. Happy came flying down from the sky, Natsu in tow. "Karyū no Tekken!" Natsu slame his fist into the dragon's side.

Acnologia let out a high pitch scream deep from its throat. It slashed out its tail, aiming at Wendy, Lucy and Erza. Carla flew off holding Wendy and Lucy. Erza jumped over the swinging tail and buried one of her weapons into Acnologia's side. The scarlet jumped away from the body landing next to Gray. The ice mage sent the requip mage a quick glance, reassuring that the scarlet was okay.

"Ice make: Saucer!"

"Blumenblatt!"

The combined attack hit Acnologia squarely in his side. The Black Dragon spun to the two mages, stepping in a mass of bomb traps as it did. Flames came up around its legs. Masaru didn't miss a beat, sending a wave of magic to the dragon. Natsu let out another dragon roar at the beast, catching it off guard. Takeshi sent another arc of wind to cut across the dragon's scales.

Wendy let landed next to Lucy on the ground. The celestial mage summoned both Cancer and Taurus simultaneously. "Vernier!" A glow appeared around the two spirits as Wendy used her magic on the two. The spirits moved forward, delivering two separate attacks on the dragon.

Acnologia raised his head to the mages surrounding him. The Black Dragon opened its mouth and let out a terrifying roar. The mages dodged to the side, narrowing avoiding the deadly counter attack. The dragon raised a claw o the sky and swept it down onto the mages.

Happy flew in at the last second and grabbed Erza who was about to be gone from the attack. Natsu jumped away from the dragon's reach before being hit also. Gray saw Masaru out of the corner of his eye. "OI! You ready?" The other mage nodded and made her way to him.

She kneeled beside Gray, focusing her own magic into the maker mage's next attack. Gray took in a deep breath before his began. Dynamic ice make still wasn't his forte, but he was still able to do it.

"ICE MAKE: **DRAGON**!"

The ice mage focused his own magic and the magic being lent to him onto his creation. Icy wind gathered around him and his creation, until a dragon the size of Acnologia stood before him. Acnologia leapt forward to the dragon, snapping his teeth. Gray's creation did similar. The icy teeth of the creation dug its way into Acnologia's neck. Acnologia roared as blooded dripped from his wounded throat.

Gray was already on the move _before_ the Black Dragon recovered .He transported in a blink of an eye behind Acnologia's head. An ice sword formed in his hands that he plunged into the back of Acnologia's head. The dragon snapped his head backwards, sending Gray flying back.

The ice mage transported so he was on the sandy banks of the ocean. Acnologia had torn up his ice dragon into pieces. The other mages continued their attacks on the beast. Gray focused on the ocean water around him. He raised his arms up and the ocean replied, coming down in icicles on Acnologia's backside.

The Black Dragon spread its wings and leapt into the air, flying above the mages. It flinched as it flew into the wind barrier Wendy and Takeshi had made earlier. The dragon crashed back into the ground. A cracking sound came from the groaning earth as it struggled to hold the dragon's weight.

_Just a little more._ Gray thought to himself._ We just need to get him in the cavern._

Happy flew above the dragon, holding Natsu in his paws. The dragon slayer let out another roar followed by a wing slash. Lucy sent Taurus to hit Acnologia on the side. Erza sent another wave of swords, this time hit Acnologia's eye, blinding the beast in one eye. Takeshi, Masaru, and Aiko, sent a burst of magic to the Dragon's other side._ It's not enough._ The ice mage thought dully._ Just a burst and the earth will give away._

Gray transport to the air above Acnologia's body. "ICE MAKE: GUNGNIR!" An ice lance hit and encased the dragon below him. Acnologia shifted beneath him and the ground gave way. The black dragon began to plummeted into the abyss Aiko and Lucy had accessed earlier.

A triumphant smile spread across Gray's lips for a moment,

…until he found himself falling along with Acnologia.

Gray gritted his teeth in frustration as he found he didn't have enough magic power to transport out of the situation. He saw Happy flying to him from the corner of his eye._ He's not going to make it._

The ice mage fell into the abyss along with the black dragon.


	21. Chapter 21

**I do not own Fairy Tail. Before anyone says anything about the ending, it may not be completely finished. This story is but if anyone wants a sequel I may write one. Tell me if you think there should or shouldn't be one because this ending was enough. **

* * *

Acnologia dug his claws into the side of the abyss, trying to keep himself from falling. The claws tore at the cavern's sides, weakening the earth around the dragon and mage. The sides of the cavern gave way and fell on top of the two. Gray braced himself for the collision of getting smashed between the dragon and earth.

He felt his body slam into something tough, almost leathery feeling. He rolled along it, dodging the oncoming earth. _I'm on his wing._ The ice mage slide down Acnologia's wing and into the crevice between the dragon and earth. Acnologia had his wing braced against the now dirt ceiling enclosing the cavern. The other was smashed between Acnologia and the ground, rendering the creature utterly flightless from escape.

_The plan was for Acnologia to be trapped down here, not me with him._ Gray tried balancing himself between the cavern wall and the dragon, Acnologia was too occupied to deal with him at the moment. The ice alchemist gritted his teeth in pain. The leathery wing only broke his fall partway. His right leg felt shattered beneath him. _Dammit, I'm out of magic power to._

Acnologia turned to the ice mage, fury written on the creatures scale covered face. A roar pierced the cavern as Acnologia wailed at the ice mage. The earth above them fell down again at the roars vibrations. Acnologia went still as the earth pressed down on him. _Looks like his magic would only hurt him._ Gray slowly moved his bad leg in front of his working one, limping away from the dragon claw in case he decided to take a swipe at him.

Gray slid down against Acnologia's back and the cavern wall. _Looks like we're both stuck down here for who knows how long._ Acnologia's blue scales somehow illuminated the dark cavern, granting Gray enough light to inspect his injury. He pulled his leg up to in pain. Bile rose in his throat at the sight.

The skin along his leg had torn to shreds along Acnologia's diamond sharp scales. The white of the bone shone like moonlight under the torn muscle. Crimson blood dripped across the laceration. The memory of Ur making an ice leg flooded his mind._ Will I have to do that?_

A shriek pierced his thoughts. Gray felt Acnologia's back shift under him as the dragon struggled to free itself. _Like that would work._ Gray thought darkly. A sudden memory came flooding back to him. Of when he first learned about pure magic and how he could manipulate his magic power.

_ I wonder…_

The ice mage searched through him thoughts, focusing on the part of him concerned on magic. _There_. He focused on the part of him that was his second origin._ There's just a tiny bit of magic left, but it's enough._

Gray tried recalling everything he knew about the spell. How he could multiply his magic power by itself. The ice mage took in a deep breath, concentrating on his remaining power. A warm feeling started around his core. Slowly the warmth spread outwards to the rest of his damaged body. A feeling of being refreshed washed over him as his magic came back to him. "That should be enough."

"I'll say it is." Gray turned around to the sound of the voice. A figure with an all too familiar voice stepped out of the shadows. "If you think you can get out of her with transport you're dead wrong. Your friends above are trying the same thing to no extent. Aren't I kind. I've allowed you to finish what you've started without any distractions."

Gray cautiously pushed himself up from the ground. "Why would you do that?"

"Isn't it obvious." Zeref shot Gray a wicked smile. "Acnologia is growing old and weak. I can't kill him, not after all the effort and magic I've spent on him. However, if another mage does it for me it solves two problems at once. I don't have to, and Acnologia's dead."

Acnologia screamed at the Dark Mage's words. "Why do you want Acnologia dead."

"Same reason I wanted Natsu to kill me back on Tenrou Island. But never mind that. When you do carry out the task, keep this in mind. Acnologia can't simply be slain, his magic remains after he's dead, you have to seal the magic."

"What are you really getting out of this?"

"You dead. How you managed to live when Deliora attacked is beyond me, but you won't escape this time. So tell me ice mage," Zeref reached out and pulled Gray's face up to his own. "What will you do now that you're not leaving here alive."

With that Zeref's form melted back into the shadows. Gray glanced over to where Acnologia was watching him. _I hate to admit it, but Zeref's right._

Gray limped to the front of the dragon. Acnologia swung his free claw down at the ice mage. Gray put his hand out in front of him, sending a wave of magic at the dragon. Acnologia swung his arm away as ice magic crept up his limb, turning the once warm flesh into iced scales. The limb shattered as the ice took form. _To think, Zeref even told me what to do without me knowing._

The ice mage moved until he was head on with the dragon._ It's different then iced shell. That spell just turned your body to ice, this goes beyond that._ Gray moved his arms out before his battered body. _It freezes your soul while taking on your opponents, than shatters._ Gray raised his head to look the black dragon in his eye._ It taints your soul and kills you in order to take down your opponent._

An icy wind picked up around Gray and the dragon._ Who would have guessed it; I'm helping Zeref in order to destroy him._ The ice mage bent his arms so they were in position for the spell. A sickening feeling started in his stomach as images flashed through his mind. Memories of his parents, of training with Ur and Lyon. Coming to Fairy Tail, meeting his guild mates, his nakama, his family.

_"Iced soul."_

* * *

Makarov was silent as the guild looked onwards to the tombstone. The old man spoke slowly, trying unsuccessfully at keep the tears at bay._ What parent let's their child go like this._

Lucy felt the tears streaming down her face uncontrollably. She felt each sob choke out of her in pain. Happy and Erza were the same. So was every other guild member. How could they not be, after something so tragic.

Natsu couldn't help but feel the warm tears slide down his face. He was somewhat aware of the crying around him. Of his friends sobbing over their comrade's death. A lump was stuck in his throat as his eyes traveled across the memorial in his friend's remembrance.

_Gray Fullbuster_

_X766- X791_

_Loving Friend and Hero_

The fire mage clenched his fist in anger and pain. After everything they've been through Gray was still gone, and would remain that way. Nothing was going to change that. Natsu remembered finding him, or what was left of him. When they had finally managed to get to the cavern all that remained was an ice sculpture on Acnologia, which shattered into countless pieces. The only thing that remained unharmed was Gray's sword pendant, which was now set in stone in Gray's memorial. The ice mage was simply _gone._ Natsu maybe wasn't the smartest mage in the world, but he didn't have any trouble grasping the sacrifice Gray had made for everyone.


	22. author's note

Hey guys.

Sorry if you thought this was an update, but I'm officially done with this story. However, since I got a few request to do a sequel there will be one posted in a few days so keep your eyes open if you want to read it. Though I'm having a little trouble deciding if I should keep the point of view the same or switch to first person point of view. If you guys prefer either one let me know because I'm undecided.

About the one chapter suggestion, that's going to have to be a no. The idea I have will take a lot longer than one chapter. I sincerely doubt the sequel will be as long as the story. After I'm done with that I'm planning a few other Gray centered stories if anyone is interest, just keep an eye open for my work.

I hope you enjoy the sequel when it's out.


End file.
